From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== In 1982, a shady transaction is occurring between an East German scientist, Dr. Krause, and a group of Americans involving a substance known as MM88. MM88 is a deadly virus, created accidentally by an American geneticist, that amplifies the potency of any other virus or bacterium it comes into contact with. The Americans recover the virus sample, which was stolen from a lab in the US the year before, but the virus is accidentally released after the plane transporting it crashes, creating a pandemic initially known as the "Italian Flu". Within seven months, virtually all the world's population has died off. However, the virus is inactive at temperatures below -10 degrees Celsius, and the polar winter has spared the 855 men and eight women stationed in Antarctica. The British nuclear submarine HMS Nereid joins the scientists after sinking a Soviet submarine whose infected crew attempts to make landfall near Palmer Station. Several years later, as the group is beginning to repopulate their new home, it is discovered that an earthquake will activate the Automated Reaction System (ARS) and launch the United States nuclear arsenal. The Soviets have their own version of the ARS that will fire off their weapons in return, including one targeting Palmer Station. After all of the women and children and several hundred of the men are sent to safety aboard an icebreaker, Yoshizumi and Major Carter embark aboard the Nereid on a mission to shut down the ARS, protected from MM88 by an experimental vaccine. The submarine arrives at Washington, D.C., and Yoshizumi and Carter make a rush for the ARS command bunker. However, they reach the room too late, and all but those aboard the icebreaker perish in the nuclear exchange. Over the course of years Yoshizumi walks back towards Antarctica. Upon reaching Tierra del Fuego in 1988,Dr. Latour: We've all had injections of my vaccine against the virus, which is why we have survived the last four years. (English, Kadokawa Shoten, 1980) he finds some of the survivors from the icebreaker, immunized by a since-developed vaccine. They embrace, and Yoshizumi declares "Life is wonderful." ===== ===== The Doctor and Lucie Miller land the TARDIS next to a cliff in what appears to be ancient Greece. Two star-crossed lovers, Kalkin and Sararti, have been preparing to kill themselves nearby, but the Doctor and Lucie prevent this, and soon anachronistic helicopters surround them all. One of the soldiers who disembark, General Ares, is gravely injured in the ensuing struggle. The Doctor just about saves his life and he, Lucie, Sararti and Kalkin are taken back to a grand palace, where to their horror they witness the ailing Ares' mind being transferred into the body of another man, one of the soldiers, who has expected this and is entirely willing to so sacrifice himself to his 'destiny'. The Doctor confronts Zeus, the autocratic ruler of this strange society where guns are labelled as magic wands and the hi-tech mind-transfer device is an 'incarnation chamber'. Zeus admits that he is not really a god, and reveals that they are on a lost Earth colony planet in Lucie's distant future. Generations ago, he and his wife Hera, along with many others, some now long gone, landed here and he has gone on to create a society based upon Greek myth. He explains that he was the pilot of the original colony ship, and Kalkin is not his son, but his next-in-line clone, who has rebelled against his fate. The next clone after that, Ganymede, is by contrast committed to his cruel destiny, but is too young for a transfer. The ruling class, the remains of the original crew – the 'gods' – use their machine, which the Doctor insists has long been outlawed as an abomination – to transfer their minds periodically into their clones, giving them practical immortality. Zeus has appeared welcoming, but lusts after Lucie despite insisting that he and Hera have a thousand-year-old love. He reveals himself to be a madman, and demands that the Doctor use the TARDIS to fetch parts to repair the immortality machine, as it has become worn out and they are now without space-travel capabilities. The Doctor very reluctantly agrees after Zeus threatens to hurt Lucie – even to clone her repeatedly and torture each Lucie to death for all eternity. When Hera suffers a heart attack, her mind transfer into the unwilling Sararti fails, leaving Sararti in control of her body. Pretending all is well, she suddenly stabs Zeus, so that he requires an immediate transfer into Kalkin's body. The Doctor appears to go along with this under pressure from Ares and the loyal soldiers, but ensures that it fails. Though Lucie and Sararti at first fail to appreciate this ruse, the Doctor and the new Zeus – Kalkin, of course – convince them that the lovers can secretly take on his and Hera's roles. They insist that they will stop using the machine as the Doctor and Lucie take their leave. Lucie is optimistic, but the Doctor reminds her that these two are essentially younger versions of the tyrannical pair they have helped to overthrow... ===== The Doctor and Lucie land on Phobos, the moon of Mars, which has become popular with extreme sports fans in the future, due to a wormhole on the surface which is used for bungee jumping. The Doctor and Lucie listen to Kai Tobias's stories of monsters on the surface, although no-one takes him seriously. Later the monsters from Tobias's stories appear and begin attacking visitors. When The Doctor discovers that the monsters are just robots, Tobias reveals that an entity from another universe is in the wormhole and that it feeds on the pleasurable fear extreme sports fans feel. However, it is hurt by real fear and Tobias made the robots to create real fear. The Doctor enters the wormhole and shows the entity his fears, which kill it, and The Doctor and Lucie leave. The Headhunter awakens on the moon's medical ward, angry that she has missed Lucie again. ===== The Doctor and Lucie follow the criminal time traveller Nick Zimmerman to a decaying spaceship in the Time Vortex, where he is planning to sell time travel technology to the highest bidder. After escaping the Tar-Modowk, aliens who have been attracted to the ship, they chase Dr. Zimmerman to a garden party, where Dr. Zimmerman appears to have aged 30 years. The Doctor guesses that the party is in a time loop, and confronts Zimmerman, only to learn that Zimmerman has settled down, married a woman called Rachel and rejected a life of crime. The Doctor informs Zimmerman that he must close the loop before the Tar-Modowk enter the real universe, but Zimmerman refuses as his time loop is the only thing keeping Rachel alive. The Tar-Modowk, riding Vortisaurs, break through into the universe and begin killing guests, so Zimmerman agrees to close the loop. Rachel dies, but before The Doctor leaves, The Headhunter appears and kidnaps Lucie. ===== Part 1 In the TARDIS the Doctor is given a time ring by a Time Lord to rescue Lucie. Meanwhile, Lucie starts her new job at Hulbert Logistics, an office in Telford, believing that her travels with the Doctor were all a dream. The Doctor arrives at the office and restores Lucie's memories. She realises that this is the job she was meant to start before she was taken by the Time Lords. He decides to investigate and finds the staff working on military tactics. Lucie is fired from the job and is ejected from the office with another member of staff, Karen. The office is revealed to be the interior of a giant war machine on an alien planet, where they find a small group of other ex-employees. Meanwhile, the Doctor finds a dimensional corridor in the human resources department, which leads to an office on Earth run by a man called Hulbert, who explains that he helps aliens fight wars by brainwashing humans to run the war machines. Believing the Doctor to be his latest 'client', he takes him to a conference on the alien planet to demonstrate his company's effectiveness as the current targets of his corporations have been hunted to near extinction. Believing Hulbert's plans to be unjustified, the Doctor sabotages the conference's defensive systems, only to discover that the war is being fought against Cybermen, who storm the conference room. Part 2 Hubert agrees to work with the Cybermen, against the Doctor's advice. The Doctor learns that these Cybermen are an earlier version of the Cybermen he will encounter on Telos, having not recognised the name of the planet. Lucie and the ex-employees meet the Headhunter, who explains she was hired by Hubert to track Lucie down in case a rival company was trying to reverse-engineer his brainwashing techniques. As she has no desire to see the Cybermen win, she agrees to help them. Lucie returns to the office with the other ex-employees and regains control. Meanwhile, the Cybermen have summoned the office as it has a 100% success record, and they also intend to use the dimensional corridor to invade Earth. The office attacks the Cybermen whilst Lucie sneaks out and rescues the Doctor. They re-enter the office where Lucie shows the Doctor a device which she found in the office, which he recognizes as a Quantum Crystalliser, a device which alters possible future timelines to ensure the best possible outcome for the user. They both go in the TARDIS to talk to another Time Lord who explains that the war had been engineered by the Celestial Intervention Agency to try to eliminate the Cybermen. The Time Lord also explains that the CIA predicted that Lucie would become a dictator who would interfere with mankind's progress, so they also used a Crystalliser to alter her past to prevent this, but eventually they had to pull her out of time into the TARDIS, as contact with another Crystalliser would lead to her timeline becoming dangerously unstable. Realising that the Time Lords have manipulated her life Lucie takes the Quantum Crystalliser and runs back to the office. The Doctor realises that the Time Lords mistook Lucie for Karen when they pulled her out of time due to them both having job interviews on the same day, and Karen is the one destined to become a dictator. The Headhunter tries to talk Lucie into using the Quantum Crystalliser to get revenge on the Time Lords. The Doctor arrives and explains the situation to her. She gives him the Crystalliser, but is shocked when he gives it to the Cybermen. However, the Cyberman who uses it instantly suffers total systems failure and is killed. The Doctor explains that the Quantum Crystalliser has been programmed to ensure that the Cybermen are defeated, so he increases the range on it, causing all of the Cybermen to be killed, and rendering the device itself useless. Whilst the Time Lords return the office workers home and Karen decides to become the Headhunter's new assistant, the Doctor and Lucie leave to new adventures. ===== Hey, Stop Stabbing Me! is the story of Herman Schumacher (Patrick Casey) and his new post-collegiate life. After school ends Herman finds life a lot harder than he thought. He needs to find a place to live, a job, and new friends. The first two are solved surprisingly easy when he unknowingly moves into a house with a serial killer to fill one of the many vacancies and then gets a job as a "World Historian" which mainly consists of digging holes in an empty field. Throw in crazy roommates and a sock stealing monster for good measure and wackiness ensues. ===== Hall of Mirrors concerns a young, desperate gambling addict who is plummeted into financial ruin. A strange, anonymous caller (who happens to know every intimate detail of the protagonist's life) offers a unique solution to his situation. Lured by the promise of easy money and the beauty of an enigmatic woman, he enters an underworld of counterfeiters and con artists, where he becomes a pawn in a scheme far more elaborate and ruthless than he could have ever imagined. ===== Heidi (short for Adelheid) is five years old when her aunt Dete, who has raised Heidi since her parents' (Tobias and Adelaide) deaths four years earlier, takes Heidi to live with her formidable grandfather in the Swiss Alps. Dete has found a promising job in Frankfurt, but cannot leave while still Heidi's guardian, nor can she take Heidi with her. The only relative left is Heidi's grandfather, and in Dete’s opinion, he should take some responsibility. Alm-Onji (Alps-Uncle), as Heidi's grandfather is commonly known, has a fearsome reputation with the villagers of Dörfli, as rumors claim that in his youth he killed a man. Now he lives a solitary life with his dog Josef in a cabin halfway up the mountain. However, Heidi quickly wins her way into his heart with her enthusiasm and intelligence, firmly establishing herself in his life. She spends her days on the mountain top with the goatherd Peter, whose responsibility it is to take the villagers' goats to the high mountains for pasture, and her winters occasionally visiting Peter's grandmother, a blind old woman whose dream is to one day hear her cherished book of psalms read to her. Alm-Onji's misanthropy and seclusion prevents Heidi from going to school, of which she has no experience anyway, ultimately leaving her illiterate. Heidi continues to live happily in the mountains until Aunt Dete returns from the city, excited about a good opportunity for Heidi. A wealthy German businessman, Mr. Sesemann, is searching for a companion for his crippled daughter Clara. Thwarted by Alm- Onji, Dete tricks Heidi into accompanying her, ostensibly to get a present for Peter and her grandfather. Promised that she can return at any time, Heidi is taken to Frankfurt. There, Dete abandons her to the "care" of Miss Rottenmeier, the strict, no-nonsense governess in charge of Clara's welfare. Heidi and Clara quickly become friends, and Heidi quickly turns the household topsy-turvy with her escapades and well-meaning faux pas. Clara is enchanted by Heidi's stories of the Alps, which paint a picture of a life completely different from the sheltered and lonely one she is accustomed to. Her father is mostly away on business, and Clara's only constant companions until now are the servants and her canary. Heidi's longing to return home and occasional attempts to escape are punctuated by the occasional distractions of new friends. She smuggles a small kitten into the house, and she and Clara care for it until Miss Rottenmeier discovers it and has it thrown out, until Sebastian, the kindly butler, is able to leave the kitten with a friend. Clara's doctor befriends her, and occasionally keeps a benevolent eye on her, but it is Clara's grandmother that has the most impact. On one of her rare visits to Frankfurt, she and Heidi become fast friends. Under her kindly tutelage, Heidi finally learns how to read, to the astonishment of the tutor who has struggled for months to do the same. However, the old woman's departure home again proves a turning point for Heidi. Forbidden by Miss Rottenmeier to ever mention or even think of the Alps again, Heidi rapidly goes into a decline, eventually becoming a sleep-walker, whose passage through the hallways is mistaken for that of a ghost, terrorizing the household. Summoned home to deal with the haunting, Mr. Sesemann, with the aid of the doctor, catch Heidi in the middle of the night. The doctor diagnoses Heidi's condition and persuades Mr. Sesemann to send the girl back to her Alps before she dies of homesickness. Clara is only reconciled by the promise that she will be allowed to visit Heidi in her mountains. Under the care of Sebastian, Heidi embarks on the long trip home, finally returning to the arms of her overjoyed grandfather, Peter and his family. Heidi's return and her newfound enjoyment of reading prompt Alm-Onji to partially restore a ruined house down in the village, where they retire the following winter so that Heidi can start going to school. Over the course of the season, Heidi and Alm-Onji become friendly with the villagers, and Peter builds his own sled and wins a local race. The subsequent spring, they return to the mountain in the Alps, bidding farewell to their new friends. In Frankfurt, Clara, who has been longing to see her friend again, reminds her father of his promise to her, but he reminds her that the conditions in the Swiss Alps may be too harsh for her to handle. The doctor is sent to the Alps in her place, to inspect the area and determine whether it is an appropriate environment for a crippled, sick young girl. Heidi, Peter, Alm-Onji, and the limitations of the terrain convince the doctor that this may be just the place for Clara to try her legs again. In due course, Clara comes to the Alps with Miss Rottenmeier, who shows a clear disapproval of the rustic conditions and an open fear of animals. However, Clara's grandmother soon arrives, and after seeing first-hand the vast improvement in Clara's condition, sends Miss Rottenmeier home, commending Clara to the Alm-Onji's care before departing herself. After having established that Clara's legs are capable of functioning, the children and Alm-Onji begin to work on Clara's physical therapy. Eventually, Clara is able to walk without assistance and returns home with her father and grandmother, promising that she will return the following spring to be with her friends again. In the Heidi (2015 TV series) there is also a trio, Karl, Theresa and William. ===== The novel picks up soon after where Tarzan of the Apes left off. The ape man, feeling rootless in the wake of his noble sacrifice of his prospects of wedding Jane Porter, leaves USA for Europe to visit his friend Paul d'Arnot. On the ship he becomes embroiled in the affairs of Countess Olga de Coude, her husband, Count Raoul de Coude, and two shady characters attempting to prey on them, Nikolas Rokoff and his henchman Alexis Paulvitch. Rokoff, it turns out, is also the countess's brother. Tarzan thwarts the villains' scheme, making them his deadly enemies. Later, in France, Rokoff tries time and again to eliminate the ape man, finally engineering a duel between him and the count by making it appear that he is the countess's lover. Tarzan deliberately refuses to defend himself in the duel, even offering the count his own weapon after the latter fails to kill him with his own, a grand gesture that convinces his antagonist of his innocence. In return, Count Raoul finds him a job as a special agent in the French ministry of war. Tarzan is assigned to service in Algeria. A sequence of adventures among the local Arabs ensues, including another brush with Rokoff. Afterward Tarzan sails for Cape Town and strikes up a shipboard acquaintance with Hazel Strong, a friend of Jane's. But Rokoff and Paulovitch are also aboard, and manage to ambush him and throw him overboard. Miraculously, Tarzan manages to swim to shore, and finds himself in the coastal jungle where he was brought up by the apes. He soon rescues and befriends a native warrior, Busuli of the Waziri, and is adopted into the Waziri tribe. After defeating a raid on their village by ivory raiders, Tarzan becomes their chief. The Waziri know of a lost city deep in the jungle, from which they have obtained their golden ornaments. Tarzan has them take him there, but is captured by its inhabitants, a race of ape-like men, and is condemned to be sacrificed to their sun god. To Tarzan's surprise, the priestess to perform the sacrifice is a beautiful woman who speaks the ape language he learned as a child. She tells him she is La, high priestess of the lost city of Opar. When the sacrificial ceremony is fortuitously interrupted, she hides Tarzan and promises to lead him to freedom. But the ape man escapes on his own, locates a treasure chamber, and manages to rejoin the Waziri. Meanwhile, Hazel Strong has reached Cape Town where she meets Jane and her father, Professor Porter, together with Jane's fiancé, Tarzan's cousin William Cecil Clayton. They are all invited on a cruise up the west coast of Africa aboard the Lady Alice, the yacht of another friend, Lord Tennington. Rokoff, now using the alias of M. Thuran, ingratiates himself with the party and is also invited along. The Lady Alice breaks down and sinks, forcing the passengers and crew into the lifeboats. The one containing Jane, Clayton and "Thuran" is separated from the others and suffers terrible privations. Coincidentally, the boat finally makes shore in the same general area that Tarzan did. The three construct a rude shelter and eke out an existence of near starvation for some weeks until Jane and William Clayton are surprised in the forest by a lion. Clayton loses Jane's respect by cowering in fear before the beast instead of defending her, but they are not attacked and discover the lion dead, speared by an unknown hand. Their hidden savior is in fact Tarzan, who does not reveal himself due to anger at seeing Jane still with Clayton. Tarzan renounces any dealings with other humans, abandons the Waziri, and rejoins his original ape clan. Jane breaks off her engagement to William. Later Jane is kidnapped and taken to Opar by a party of the Oparian ape-men who were pursuing their escaped sacrifice, Tarzan. The ape man learns of her capture and tracks them, managing to save her from being sacrificed by La. La is crushed by Tarzan's spurning of her for Jane. After searching for Jane, Clayton is incapacitated with a fever and Thuran abandons him to die. Thuran discovers the other survivors from the Lady Alice who came to shore only a few miles away. He tells them that he is the sole survivor of his lifeboat. Tarzan and Jane return to Jane's shelter, along the way encountering Busuli and a group of Waziri who have been searching for their king since he disappeared. At the shelter, Clayton is at the point of death. Before he dies, he reveals to Tarzan and Jane that he knows Tarzan is the true Lord Greystoke. Tarzan and Jane make their way up the coast to the former's boyhood cabin so they can bury Clayton alongside his aunt and uncle. Here they encounter the remainder of the castaways of the Lady Alice, who have been recovered by D'Arnot in a French navy vessel. Tarzan exposes Thuran as Rokoff and the French arrest him. Tarzan weds Jane and Tennington weds Hazel in a double ceremony performed by Professor Porter, who had been ordained a minister in his youth. Then they all set sail for civilization, taking along the treasure Tarzan had found in Opar. The Waziri receive gifts from the French and reluctantly accept the departure of their king. ===== The novel is set in the land of Gwynedd, one of the fictional Eleven Kingdoms. Gwynedd itself is a medieval kingdom similar to the British Isles of the 10th century, with a powerful Holy Church (based on the Roman Catholic Church), and a feudal government ruled by a hereditary monarchy. The population of Gwynedd includes both humans and Deryni, a race of people with inherent psychic and magical abilities. The novel takes place eight decades after a foreign Deryni prince invaded Gwynedd and overthrew the human king. Though still a minority of the population, Deryni control the throne, the Church, and almost all positions of power throughout the realm, and many lead privileged lives at the expense of the human majority. However, a wave of human resentment in starting to surge throughout the kingdom, and a powerful Deryni lord embarks on a quest to restore the ancient line of Haldane kings. ===== The books follow Karl Sten, a young man born and raised on the dangerous factory world of Vulcan and saved from life as an outlaw by the head of Imperial Intelligence, Ian Mahoney. Mahoney takes Sten from the terrible world of his birth and enlists him in the military. Sten is thrust into a world of espionage, covert military actions, and galactic politics. His original training is in the super-secret covert ops group known as Mantis. The missions and actions taken are usually known only to a select few. A series of crucial missions ensures that Sten rises swiftly in rank until he becomes a troubleshooter and friend to the Emperor himself. The series of eight books are set three thousand years in the future. A vast empire, limited only by the galaxy itself, is ruled by the Eternal Emperor, a man who appears to be in his thirties but is in fact over three thousand years old. He has mastered death in a way no one has guessed since the beginning of his rule. The source of his power is a powerful fuel called Anti-Matter Two (AM2). It is what fuels everything from the star ships that link the Empire, to industrial factories, to camping heaters. Only he controls its supply and price. And only he knows where to find it. It is only for this reason that he is able to rule. ===== Norman Bates has spent the last two decades locked up in a mental asylum after the events in the first novel. His psychiatrist, Dr. Adam Claiborne, has spent the last two decades working with Norman and has hopes of one day becoming famous by curing him. His plans come crashing down after Norman strangles a visiting nun with her rosary beads, then steals her outfit and walks out. Norman gets in the van with the other visiting nun and kills her with a tire iron, then rapes her dead body. As he drives away, Norman spots a hitchhiker and picks him up with plans to kill him and use his body to fake his death. Later that night, the police find the van on fire with the charred remains of the nun and an unidentified man presumed to be Norman. Since this happened at the same time as a massive car pile up, they are exhausting their resources trying to identify the victims to notify their next of kin and can not get around to positively identifying Norman's remains. Meanwhile, across town, Sam and Lila Loomis are murdered by an assailant with a knife. Claiborne is convinced that Norman faked his death and proceeded to kill them, but the police are skeptical. As they are surveying the crime scene, they see a news article talking about a movie being made based on Norman's life. Claiborne is convinced that Norman is going to Hollywood to kill everybody involved in production, so he heads out there to stop him. Fearing the worst, Claiborne gets a job as a technical consultant on the film to keep an eye on everything. He gets introduced to the cast and crew, including director Vizzini, who is the spitting image of Norman twenty years previously. Claiborne keeps thinking that something bad is going to happen, but nobody believes him until the movie's producer gets decapitated with a meat cleaver. At the scene of the crime, Claiborne and Officer Ames find out about Vizzini's past: his mother was raped and murdered when he was a child. Meanwhile, Vizzini calls the actress playing Marion Crane to the movie studio where the shower scene is going to be shot under the guise of rehearsing the scene, but he is really planning on raping and murdering her. It turns out that his childhood trauma has affected his sexual morality. Claiborne gets a bad feeling about Vizzini and heads over to the movie studio to try to stop him. Moments after he leaves, the phone rings and Ames answers it only to be in touch with the officer investigating Norman's disappearance. They have conclusively identified the charred remains in the van as Norman's. It turns out while Norman planned on killing the hitchhiker to fake his death, the hitchhiker actually overpowered Norman and killed him in self-defense. He had a criminal record and was worried about going back to jail, so he burned the van to hide the evidence and went into hiding. However, the hitchhiker really thought he was killing a nun instead of a disguised Norman. The thought of killing a nun weighed on his conscience and he eventually turned himself in. Ames concludes that if Norman is dead, Vizzini must be the murderer and he requests officers to go to the movie studio. Meanwhile, Vizzini tries to rape the actress. However, she fights him off and kicks him hard enough to send him into the prop shower behind the curtain. Vizzini screams loudly and emerges with a large stab wound before dropping dead. The assailant then takes the knife and approaches the actress. However, before he can stab her, the police show up and shoot him. As he falls, he is revealed to be none other than Dr. Claiborne. He survives the shooting and ends up committed to the very asylum that Norman spent twenty years in. Claiborne's colleague deduces that he put so much time and energy into Norman Bates, that when Norman died, Claiborne realized he would never get the fame he wished for and the trauma of this reality gave him Norman's split personality. This split personality killed Sam and Lila, Vizzini, and the producer. Now, his colleague is hoping that he will one day be cured, but he is not very hopeful. ===== Mr. Mainwaring is organising a drinks party at his house, in spite of his wife's fears that he and his men will "get drunk and smash the house up". He informs Wilson he may call him George at the party, something Wilson takes great delight in. However he sternly tells him he cannot call him "George" during work hours and turns down Mr. Pike's request to call him "George" at the party. The party starts off with Jones' section in attendance and clearly very uncomfortable. The stilted conversation remains until the arrival of Walker, with his girlfriend Shirley, which immediately throws George off kilter. He serves them a small amount of beer and sandwiches, which they quickly wolf down, after which George gives them a guided tour of the room, while Walker gets down to business with Shirley on the sofa. Much excitement is generated by the imminent arrival of Mrs Mainwaring, but an air raid warning sees her scurrying to the shelter before being introduced or even being seen by any of the platoon members (or audience). Mr. Hodges arrives, and a few moments later bombs land on the allotments, the taxi garage and the bank. Alarmed, Mr. Mainwaring and his men hurry round to the bank to salvage the money. They secure it and carry it back to the church hall where they begin counting it. After a very long night, they eventually total it up. They then attempt to carry it to Eastgate using a horse and cart supplied by Walker and their own bicycles. A short way into the journey, the money starts blowing out of the hamper used to carry it. Trying to alert Mainwaring's attention to this, Pike fires his rifle, only to frighten the horse and send it charging off into a field with the platoon following close behind on their bikes. ===== The body of Danny Sorenson is found in a shallow grave. Sipowicz gets a new partner, a son of his old nemesis. Together they track the mafia members who killed Sorenson. Valerie becomes pregnant with Baldwin, but she loses the baby and Baldwin has doubts as to whether it was a miscarriage or an abortion. ===== Daniel Chang (Wong) is a twenty- something second-generation Chinese-American living at home in San Francisco with his widowed mother, who can speak broken English, and his grandmother (his father's mother), who cannot speak English. Ever since his father died, he has fulfilled his patriarchal duty as first and only son by managing the family business and looking after his mother. Being gay, he avoids the second major responsibility of carrying on the family line through heterosexual marriage and reproduction. Out of respect for his mother's values, he tries to keep, as he puts it, his home life and his "homo life" separate. By not directly telling his mother that he is gay, he has unwittingly found himself in a tense but hilarious situation where his mother continually pressures him to marry women of her choosing. Luckily, Daniel's female friend, Michelle, graciously rescues him from the constant onslaught of potential dates by pretending to be his steady girlfriend (for a price), which deflects his need to come out to his mother. Besides the extra money Mrs. Chang makes playing Mahjong, she also rents out the basement illegally. Daniel relates how he was quite happy to leave the previous female tenant alone. Daniel expects his mother to replace the previous tenant with another woman and is astounded when the new tenant turns out to be Robert, a young attractive white man from Indiana. Daniel immediately has a crush on him. Following a plumbing mishap that floods the basement with raw sewage, Mrs. Chang apologetically moves Robert into the only other bedroom that is not hers—Daniel's room. Even though reality has merged with Daniel's deepest fantasies, he bows to the paranoia that his mother will find out he is gay and decides to sleep on the living room sofa. Mrs. Chang eventually kicks Daniel off the couch so she can watch her late-night TV programs, and he is forced to share his bed with Robert. Daniel manages to be prudish for a few nights but eventually the two become lovers. Daniel's fear of being caught making out with a man constantly gets in between his relationship with Robert, and Daniel begins to wish that the basement repairs would finish soon so they could move their lovemaking to a safer area. However, one day Mrs. Chang and Grandma return home earlier than expected right in the middle of one of Daniel and Robert's trysts. Grandma walks in on them during copulation to offer them mooncakes, one of the few English words she knows. She sheepishly leaves the mooncakes on the nightstand and exits, giving them enough time to roll apart to opposite sides of the bed just as Mrs. Chang walks in. Daniel quickly chastizes her for not knocking and makes up the excuse that he was napping. Mrs. Chang does not seem to notice that both he and Robert are naked, but she bluntly tells Robert to move his belongings back into the basement that night. With the basement repaired, Daniel imagines he can finally spend time with Robert away from his mother's prying eyes, but the very next day a San Francisco building inspector stops by. Daniel suspects his own mother called the inspector, who gives the Chang's a list of expensive home improvements that would be needed to legally rent the room. Mrs. Chang jumps at the chance, arguing with Daniel that she has no choice but to make Robert move out. Their argument echoes in the basement and Robert hears Daniel give in without too much of a fight. Heartbroken, Robert moves away to a friend's place in Pasadena. Daniel reaches his breaking point. Miserable and determined not to be alone forever, he comes out to his mother the very next time she starts talking about available young women. This time he is direct and asserts that he wants to be with Robert. Mrs. Chang reacts angrily, lecturing Daniel in her native tongue and storming away from him. In her confusion, disappointment and fear of losing Daniel (who threatened to move out), she turns to the only other woman she knows with a gay son, Robert's mother. Robert's mother asks Mrs. Chang if it wouldn't be so bad to have another son, a clever way of getting around the cultural taboo of same- sex love. Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Chang calls Daniel back home to meet another potential date. Daniel flips out and races back home to stand up to his mother for the last time. He opens the door bellowing out, "Mother!" but almost chokes from surprise when Robert walks toward him instead. Mrs. Chang had invited Robert to be part of their family. ===== Stephen Torcelli lives with his partner Danny Russo in New York City. When Stephen's parents call to announce a surprise visit for his father's birthday, Stephen and Danny scramble to conceal their double lives. The Torcellis already know that Stephen and Danny are gay; they don't know that they're enforcers for the Patrizzi crime family. Stephen's father is an undercover FBI agent and if he learns of their criminal affiliation he'll be obligated to report them. Stephen and Danny have told them that they run a catering company, even though neither of them can cook. Meanwhile, Don Patrizzi's daughter Jenny has announced her engagement. Even though her fiancé is not Sicilian, Don Patrizzi decides to throw her a lavish engagement party which gets combined with the birthday party for Mr Torcelli. Mrs Torcelli suggests that the boys cater the party, sending them into a panic. One of Don Patrizzi's sons is an excellent chef - and the other is a master decorator - so the Patrizzi boys take care of the food and the decor. As a special treat for Jenny, Don Patrizzi forcibly "invites" a U.S. Senator under his control to the party. It is this guest who is of the most interest to the Jenningses, the parents of Jenny's fiancé. They run a militia group which has declared war on the United States government and they want to take the opportunity to hold the Senator, a representative of that government, hostage. Oblivious to this threat, Don Patrizzi's soldiers have been enlisted to serve as waiters for the party. Reasoning that a catering company owned by a gay couple would have gay employees, they recruit a flamboyant friend of the Danny and Stephen's to give them a crash course on gay (including such vital information as the correct order of Elizabeth Taylor's husbands and the proper use of the expression "puh-lease!"). At the party all is going well until the Jenningses and their militiamen strike. They take the guests hostage and force the Senator to record a message for the media. Stephen and Danny, fearful that the tape will lead to police action and a deadly shootout, neutralize the militia with the help of the newly gay-acting Patrizzi soldiers and some random drag queens that were brought to the party for a vaguely defined purpose. With their cover blown, Stephen and Danny tell Mr Torcelli that they're ready for him to turn them in. However, the birthday he's celebrating is his 60th, meaning that he's been mandatorily retired and is no longer with the FBI. In other happy news for Don Patrizzi, Jenny's fiancé turns out to be adopted and he was actually born Sicilian after all. ===== After escaping from the railroad police after stowing away on a train, the Stooges befriend a champion wrestler named Ivan Bustoff (Harrison Greene). His trainers, who are part of the mob, have a large bet placed on Bustoff to win the big match. But Bustoff likes to go out drinking, and after a wild night out with the boys ending in Bustoff downing a mixture made of "a little tequila, vodka and cognac", which he believes is not alcohol and a different kind of drink, then passes out from drinking the mixture. The mobsters hire/force the Stooges to become Bustoff's managers and get him to the ring sober. In the locker room at the arena, the boys are trying to wake Bustoff up, but end up knocking him out with dumb bells and causing the locker to fall on him. Bustoff remains unconscious. In fear, the Stooges substitute Curly, who possesses a tendency to get violent in reaction to the smell of Wild Hyacinth perfume. Moe and Larry realize that this can be used to their advantage. But the subsequent wrestling match is not a good time for Curly as he performs poorly. Moe then spots a woman spectator holding a bottle of Wild Hyacinth and gets it from her. By this time, the mobsters get wind of Bustoff's non-participation and are threatening the Stooges with harm if Curly does not win as planned. The Wild Hyacinth is then applied to Curly, and soon the challenger is knocked out cold along with nearly everyone else in attendance as Curly goes on a rampage using the match bell as a cudgel. The bell then slips out of Curly's hands and flies up in the air, only to land back onto his head and knock him out as well. ===== A postal worker named Fred Bentson unwittingly becomes a portal between two worlds and two cities. A living link between Dakota, home city of the Milestone heroes, and Metropolis, home of Superman. Eventually Bentson loses control of his powers and transforms into Rift, a cosmic being capable of manipulating and reconfiguring matter on a subatomic scale. The heroes of the two universes come together to stop him and seal the dangerous rift between their worlds. ===== After being acquitted on a charge of chicken stealing, the Stooges attempt to catch a live fish from a pet store aquarium tank. A beat cop (Bud Jamison) catches them in action and gives chase, forcing the boys to pose as plumbers to avoid being incarcerated. The Stooges manage to destroy the entire plumbing system in the home in grand fashion. Curly attempts to repair a leak in the upstairs bathroom and ends up constructing a maze of pipes that traps him. Larry digs up the front lawn in fruitless search of the water shutoff valve. In addition, Moe and Curly end up connecting a water pipe with another nearby pipe housing electrical wires, leading to water exiting every electrical appliance in the mansion, resulting in much comedic suffering for the mansion’s bewildered chef (Dudley Dickerson). When a hostess invites her guests to watch Niagara Falls on her new television set, the whole company gets doused with water (therefore leading to the invention of 4-D television). The homeowner arrives to see his house in shambles and accidentally undoes the Stooges' convoluted repair work. As they are about to reprimand him, it becomes clear that the homeowner happens to be the judge who found them innocent a few hours earlier; in the last scene the Three Stooges are running away while being chased by the Judge, his butler and the police. ===== As Betty begins her first day at MODE as Daniel's assistant, she is given the ins and outs on what to expect now that she and Daniel have become a team. Things start when Bradford tells Daniel that as the editor-in-chief he should take charge of the 'book' - the mock-up of the upcoming issue before it hits the stands. Daniel decides to let Betty in on how the setup is prepared by taking her to the meeting. Here he tells the staff, including Wilhelmina, that he will review the issue personally and orders that he be given the 'book'. This issue will feature digitalized photos of movie star Natalie Whitman, who is none too happy with how they will alter them because she has gained weight, although Betty admires her just as she looks. While running an errand for Daniel, including a stop for lunch in the cafeteria where she shows off her homemade empanadas and talk about the mock-up with the "Uglies" (to which Zelda mentions to Christina that she would be great on the cover of National Geographic after she brings up about if she was on the cover), Betty notices her pink bunny is missing from her desk. This sets up a recurring theme in this episode, with Betty receiving several e-mails with pictures of the bunny being battered, and Amanda taunting Betty. Just as Daniel is giving the mock- up the once-over, Amanda distracts him with tickets to an opera (that she says is as boring as heck, but there is a room upstairs where they can 'do naughty things' and not get caught), so he agrees to go with her and leaves the 'book' in the office. After Daniel leaves for the evening, Betty goes into the office and takes it upon herself to take the 'book' home. At home Betty shows the issue to her family, but is distracted by Gina, who is furious with Betty over destroying her TV (see previous episode) and now wants $4,000. We also learn that there is bad blood between Gina and Hilda. When Hilda grabs the 'book' and threatens to hit Gina, Gina notices the 'book' (or as she calls it, "The Dead Sea Scrolls") and sees a way to get her money. That night, by using her 'juvie' skills, she sneaks in and takes the 'book'. The following day Betty receives a ransom note under the door saying that she'll get the book back if Gina gets her $4,000. At Gina's place, Gina and Hilda (who sneaked in through the back door) resume their catfight, resulting in Gina's hairpiece being ripped off. Hilda sarcastically says that now she and Betty owe Gina $4,000... and fifty cents. Daniel calls, and at first Betty decides to cover her tracks by lying to him but when she comes clean he decides to help Betty by paying Gina to get the issue back. Unfortunately Wilhelmina gets wind of this (via a text message from the chauffeur who picked Betty up) and sends Marc to retrieve it. When Betty and Daniel (who stalls a staff meeting so he has time to recover the mock-up) arrive to get the 'book', Gina tells them that she got a LCD TV after someone else showed up to claim it. While there, Betty sees Walter fixing Gina's set but he insists that he still has feelings for Betty. When Walter turns the TV on, they learn that a story involving the missing 'book' has found its way onto the TV channel Fashion TV. After telling the truth to Bradford about what has happened, Betty is left with no choice but to quit (good news for Amanda). Then Natalie shows up and says that she wants the real photos of herself to be published in MODE and that Betty should keep her job (another setback for Amanda). As expected Daniel upstages Wilhelmina by having Natalie appear on Fashion TV, where she explains why she wants the public to see her just the way she really looks. After taking the mock-up off Wilhelmina's hands, Daniel has just enough time to look properly through it before it is published. Meanwhile, Bradford decides to take a personal interest in the Fey Sommers scandal (Bradford and Fey dating) by telling the private detective he plans to sneak into Fey's apartment to see what he can find. In the process Bradford finds a photo of himself and Fey together, along with a music box, which he takes with him. Bradford destroys the photo by burning it, casting suspicion about his own involvement with Sommers. As for Wilhelmina, she once again visits the mystery woman to see if she can get more info on how to take down the Meades in her plot to take over the company. As Daniel goes over the mock-up, a woman phones to tell him that he should be proud of his father.... and warns him that he should be careful when he is around him... then hangs up. ===== The Reverend Samuel D. Whitehead, ex-Marine, bricklayer, and recent seminary graduate, is ecstatic to receive his first "calling," or assignment as Pastor of his own church. But the Church of the Redeemer in Wood Falls, Kansas, will prove a challenging assignment and nearly his undoing. The trouble begins almost immediately after he drives into town with his family. A political rally connected with the upcoming mayoral campaign has erupted into a no- holds-barred, knock-down, drag-out brawl, which the sheriff will not stop. Sam attempts to intervene and succeeds only in getting struck in the face, so he drives on to see the church. There he learns that the church sorely needs major renovation, which has not been done in decades because the two founding families, the Sinclairs and the Greshams, have been running a feud for decades and cannot agree on the simplest decision that would benefit the church (or on anything else, either). Worse yet, Sam delivers his first sermon by preaching against physical violence—only to discover most of the brawlers in attendance, including one who blames him for making him vulnerable to someone else's assault. Thereafter Sam spends most of his time trying to improvise to provide for the church needs, speak out on various problems in the community, and, ever more frequently, to run interference between the Sinclair and Gresham families. Each of these endeavors brings him trouble. First, his project to secure a new organ for the church leads to a confrontation with the church board when two town gossips witness him obtaining the organ from a house of Burlesque. Sam's brother-in-law, called "Bubba," offers to help the caretaker repair the superannuated boiler—but unknown to Sam, the two men turn the boiler into a still and start producing raisin jack, a variety of moonshine. Next, he takes his children out of school after seeing the appalling conditions there—which prompts his Bishop to warn him not to interfere in town affairs. Finally, he performs a marriage between a Sinclair and a Gresham—and when the secret gets out at a church social (after "Bubba" spikes the church punch with some of his raisin jack), Sam must physically restrain the heads of the families from brawling in the church fellowship hall, and then send everyone home. Not long afterward, the Bishop informs him that he is removed from his pastorate. In one final attempt to save his situation and the community, he persuades his one remaining friend, Attorney Art Shields, to run for mayor as a write-in candidate, with the election two days away. That leads to a confrontation along the main street among three different political parades, including Art's. Then the church's old boiler explodes, and the church burns down to its foundations as a result—and the attempt by the fire department to fight the fire turns pathetic when the fire hose springs multiple leaks. When the Sinclairs and the Greshams argue yet again about who was responsible for the faulty equipment, Sam roars at them to "go someplace else, yell your heads off, and let this poor church die in peace!" The next day, the Whiteheads are moving out—when Art Shields joyously announces that he is trouncing the opposition in the election and will definitely be the next mayor. Art offers Sam a job with the town, but Sam declines, saying that he needs to find another church. But as he is about to leave town, Will Sinclair and Axel Gresham—reconciled at last, and at the head of a procession of building-material trucks—intercept him, tell him that they intend rebuilding the church, and beg him to stay on. ===== The early life of William Thornhill is one of Dickensian poverty, depredation and criminality.Bedell, Geraldine. Bush Ballad Observer review at The Guardian, 22 January 2006. Retrieved 27 July 2016 After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is sentenced to death for stealing wood, however, in 1806 his sentence is commuted to transportation to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children in tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a death sentence. However, there is a way for the convicts to buy freedom and start afresh. Thornhill then gets sent to Sydney on a boat, by himself. After 9 months, Thornhill is finally able to reunite with his family in Australia. Sal becomes Thornhill's master, and Thornhill obtained a ticket of leave, one year later, after he demonstrated good behaviour. His son, Willie is already five years old, and Willie could not recognize his father, after being away from him for so long. Thornhill now also has another son, Richard, whom he called Dick. During his first night in this new land, Thornhill encounters an Aboriginal and struggles to communicate with him. The following weeks, Thornhill went to work as a lighterman for Mr. King. Thornhill then brought the alcohol, which he got from Mr. King, back home, to set up his own bar, named the "Pickled Herring." Scabby Bill was a regular customer, who would entertain the customers, by dancing for money. Three years later, and Thornhill quits his job and works for Thomas Blackwood, a former convict who is attempting to reconcile himself with the place and its people. Blackwood lived on the Hawkesbury River, with his boat, "the Queen". Thornhill also met Smasher Sullivan, a man whose fear of this alien world turns into brutal depravity towards it. Thornhill soon realises that the Aboriginal people of Australia have a different concept of land ownership, as compared to the white settlers, and notices that many of the Aboriginals were stealing his corn. Thornhill realises that Blackwood has an Aboriginal wife, and son. Shocked, he goes on to tell his wife about it. He also gave the black people names, to tell them apart easily, and renamed some of them as "Whisker Harry", "Long Bob" and "Black Dick". Thornhill was also shocked to see his son, Dick playing with the Aboriginal people, and he beat up Dick. As Thornhill and his family stake their claim on a patch of ground by the river, the battle lines between old and new inhabitants are drawn.Fantastic Fiction review Soon after, Saggity, a friend of Smasher Sullivan was killed after a raid on his farm by Aborigines, it is Saggity's death that leads to the battle with the Aborigines. Blackwood tries to stop the fighting, but gets whipped by Smasher. In the battle between the settlers and the Aborigines many casualties are sustained on both sides, Whisker Harry kills Sullivan, while he gets shot in the stomach, and long Jack gets shot in the head. Though Thornhill is a loving husband and a good father, his interactions with indigenous inhabitants are villainous. Thornhill dreams of a life of dignity and entitlement, manifested in his desire to own land. After befriending Blackwood under his employ, Thornhill finds a patch of land he believes will meet his needs, but his past comes back to haunt him. His interactions with the Aboriginal people progress from fearful first encounters to (after careful observation) appreciation. The desire for him to own the land contrasts with his wife wanting to return to England.The Quarterly Conversation review The clash is one between a group of people desperate for land and another for whom the concept of ownership is bewildering.Poster, Jem. Cultures in collision The Guardian, book review 29 January 2006 A decade later, and William Thornhill becomes the wealthiest man in the area. He builds his own house, but he has always felt that something felt off. He also bought a new boat, named "Sarah" and renamed "Darkey's Creek" to "Thornhill's Point." Long Jack continued to stay, at Thornhill's Point, when all the other natives had fled. Thornhill's son, Dick, leaves him to live with Blackwood, and Thornhill's friendship with Blackwood also deteriorates, which leads Thornhill to have a sense of guilt of his actions. ===== At 9:15 pm EST on March 17, 1998, the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts and the United States Coast Guard cutter Eagle, are transported by an unknown phenomenon (called "The Event") back in time to the Bronze Age circa 1250s B.C. (corresponding to the late Heroic Age of the Trojan War). As the truth of what has happened sinks in, panic grips the island. Chief of Police Jared Cofflin is given emergency powers and begins organizing the people to help produce food for the island so they can feed themselves. Meanwhile, Captain Marian Alston takes the Eagle to Britain, with Ian Arnstein and Doreen Rosenthal as interpreters, where they trade Nantucket- made goods with the Iraiina, which translates as "noble ones", a tribe that has been steadily invading the island, for grain. The Iraiina are just one of the many Sun People Tribes. As a gift, the Iraiina chief gives Marian a slave, Swindapa, a captured female "Earth People" warrior. Swindapa is freed and decides to stay with Marian. The Eagle leaves for Nantucket but takes with them Isketerol, a Tartessian merchant who hopes to learn from the Americans. While the people of Nantucket work for their survival, the ambitious and ruthless Lieutenant William Walker of the USCGC Eagle decides that with modern technology he could become a king in this time. With the help of Isketerol and others, Walker convinces some naive environmentalists to steal a ship and kidnap Cofflin's wife so they can give the benefits of modern culture to Native Americans. Meanwhile, Walker and Isketerol steal another ship and return to Britain to recruit soldiers for their eventual takeover of Greece. Marian decides to rescue Cofflin's wife first and saves her after defeating an Olmec army. The bloodthirsty Olmecs proceed to gruesomely kill the modern Americans who sought to help them. Time passes as Walker solidifies his control over the Sun People and Nantucket creates a new government and prepares to take down Walker. Marian returns to Britain with a small army and uses Swindapa, who has become her lover, to convince the Earth People to fight with them to defeat Walker. Both sides meet at the Battle of the Downs and though Nantucket and its allies are victorious, Walker manages to escape with his followers to Greece. ===== The film begins with Seth and Marcie shoplifting times from a dollar type store. The two crooks crash into each other and soon a friendship ensues. After giving Marcie a ride to her weekend job, Seth goes home to his abusive and somewhat mentally unstable father. The next day Seth is at a different store where he runs into Marcie. After driving over to her home and picking up some of Marcie’s personal items, they begin a drive north to Canada in pursuit of a black Barbie styling head for Marcie. On their drive north, Marcie is unable to hide her tics. At one point, she has an outburst in a parking lot and attacks a guy who was shouting insults to Seth. From this point on, the only things that keep her tics and behaviors at bay are sex and alcohol. In desperation to get her hands on an antipsychotic, they attempt to rob a pharmacy. The pharmacist catches them and shoots Seth in the leg with a shot gun. The two get away, but one of the car tires is hit in the process and eventually Marcie crashes the car. An old man named Walter tows their truck to his place and helps take care of Seth’s wound. Over the course of a week, he teaches the two how to shoot and catch fish. After a local deputy comes by asking Walter if he’d seen the pair, Marcie has a severe outburst and beats Walter. Seth and Marcie take off in Walter’s truck. The pair make it to Canada and find the Barbie head. The only available black Barbie head is a display model that the store manager refuses to sell. Marcie again has a violent outburst and the cops are called. When the police arrive, she grabs the gun from one police officer and the other surprises her from a side aisle and shoots her dead. Seth is arrested. Later, we see Walter reading an apologies letter with $20 from Seth. Seth narrates the happy ending that did not happen, as Walter reads his letter. ===== During the last half of the eighteenth century, in what was then New France (now part of Canada), Daniel "James" Bulain, son of a French habitant and of an English schoolmaster's daughter sees his world turned upside-down as his family and the people of the neighbouring seigneurie are massacred by a war party of Mohawks. In his escape into the wilderness he is united with the unrequited love of his childhood, Toinette Tonteur, daughter of the local seigneur, when they are captured by a war party of Senecas, brought to their hidden village far to the west in the wilderness and eventually adopted into their tribe. In the spring following their first winter with the tribe, believing that Toinette, now his wife, has been killed while he was absent from the village, James escapes and joins the French forces under Montcalm and three years later is gravely wounded at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec. Cared for by the nuns of the General Hospital, James rises from unconsciousness almost a month later and is reunited with his wife and discovers he has an infant son, after wandering about the battle-scarred town obsessed with finding the three- legged dog he saw pass between the French and English lines just before the battle, which so resembled his own Odd ("Odds and ends"), whom he had last seen in the Seneca village with his wife. ===== In this continuation of Hadon's adventures in the ancient Africa of 12,000 years ago, the last-ditch defense of the High Priestess he and his allies mounted against the tyrannical King's evil schemes segues into a perilous chase through various exotic cities, seas and islands. Hadon undertakes to take his mate, now pregnant with his child, to safety at his native city of Opar, but is pursued by members of a dark cult in the service of the king. The book ends as the war just gets seriously going, and with only tantalizing glimpses given of various interesting locations. Hadon's beloved clearly appears destined to a crucial future role which is never quite reached. Plainly, Farmer provided for further sequels which were never written. He has stated that he intended to have Hadon's son emigrate to the south in the wake of the catastrophe that would ultimately destroy the Khokarsan civilization in which the series is set, there to found the city of Kor that would afterward become the setting of H. Rider Haggard's fantasy novel She.David Pringle's introduction to H. Rider Haggard's Allan & the Ice Gods — in which he quotes from an interview with Farmer on the latter's original intentions for the subsequent direction of the Opar series. ===== In the opening scene, Phoebe tells Joey that her stepfather is unable to get a day release from prison to walk her down the aisle for her wedding. She then asks Joey to substitute for him and walk her down the aisle, telling him how much he has been like a father to her. He enthusiastically agrees, and then spends most of the episode acting tense and weird to everyone else. Monica is driving Phoebe insane when she is planning Phoebe's wedding, barking orders military style, complete with headset. At the rehearsal dinner, Chandler and Ross find out that they are not included in the wedding and complain to Phoebe, who tells them they were next in line. When one of Mike's groomsmen is unable to make it, Mike lets Phoebe decide who gets to be in the wedding, a job she passes to Rachel as a "bridesmaid job". During a rehearsal toast, Phoebe gets really upset with Monica for rushing her and making sure everything is spotlessly perfect even if no one likes it, and yells at Monica for not being able to give her the simple wedding she always wanted. She then finishes her angry speech off by firing Monica on the spot. The next day, Phoebe is going through hell doing Monica's job, having items turning up in the wrong places and not knowing the technical name for orchids. Ross manages to convince Rachel to choose him as a groomsman by promising to always be on his best behaviour but later Chandler also wins her over by relating to her his feelings about always being left out of important events in his life. However, she is unable to tell Ross she changed her mind, and after he and Chandler encounter each other with misgivings, they both confront her. With Rachel again unable to decide, Mike decides to have his dog, Chappy, as the missing groomsman. Unable to cope with planning her own wedding, Phoebe gives Monica her job back, wanting her to be "Crazy Bitch" again. However, Joey informs the others of a giant blizzard, which has caused huge traffic problems and a major power outage to most of the city. As the snow begins to subside, Phoebe and Mike still want to get married, so they decide to do the simple wedding service in the street outside Central Perk with Monica's blessing. With the snow, Chappy cannot walk on his own, so Ross and Chandler both volunteer to hold him. Ross gets the job because Chandler is afraid of dogs, but Ross soon regrets it when the dog smells. With the minister cut off in the snow, Joey takes over because he is still ordained from Monica and Chandler's wedding. Chandler then substitutes for Phoebe's father, and as he walks her down the aisle, Phoebe refuses to wear a coat even though it is freezing, choosing to be her "something blue". Phoebe and Mike get married with almost no problems; after being pronounced as husband and wife, Phoebe complains about being cold, so Mike puts his jacket on her to keep her warm. ===== The story opens with a description of a statue on the grounds of the United Worlds organisation raised to Richard "Dick" Altmayer. It displays a quote and three dates, which correspond to the three days upon which he was arrested for his beliefs. The first is in the year 2755 of the "Atomic Era" (corresponding to 4700 AD in Asimovean chronology). Altmayer and his friend Geoffrey Stock have opposing positions when conscripted into military service for a war between human-occupied star systems. Stock willingly reports for military duty, whilst Altmayer protests, believing that the various interstellar nations of humanity should be united against the Diaboli, an intelligent non-human race that also occupies several planetary systems in the galaxy. Over a 45-year period, Stock reaches high military rank and then political office, whilst Altmayer is imprisoned and kept under house arrest several times for his radical idealism. He starts political parties and protest movements, all of which fail to achieve their objectives of uniting humanity. Ultimately, Altmayer's desire for a united humanity is achieved after a war against the Diaboli. This unity, however, has been realised only through Stock's political manipulations rather than Altmayer's idealistic actions. Stock asks his one-time friend to be one of the delegates from Earth to a peace conference, but realizes that history will not record his own participation in the unification of humanity, but will instead vilify him as a cruel and short-sighted politician. ===== The game's story is divided into two campaigns; human and dragon. The human campaign loosely follows the plot of the film, with significant differences. Meanwhile, the dragon campaign chronicles the early years of the human/dragon war up to the game's present timeline. The dragon campaign features an alternative ending in the final mission. ===== The game takes place a fictional city known as "Hell County" after a deadly pandemic called "The Rot" broke out before the events of the game and proceeded to wipe out most of the population of the city. Law and order collapses and gangs roam free to engage in warfare using vehicles armed with guns and explosives throughout every community. The city is split into three districts; the commercial district, ("Lava Falls"), the industrial district ("Blister Canyon"), and the residential district ("Paradise City"). In the aftermath of the chaos, a survivor named Mason Strong arrives in Lava Falls after escaping from a ruthless terrorist organization known as the "Sentinels", led by Axl, who is a corrupt police that he used to assist and are set on recreating law and order by building a dictatorship, with a goal of eliminating other gangs and enslaving survivors in the city. Mason went against them because of this and thus, was betrayed and left for dead. While in Lava Falls, Mason is hired by the Daredevils, a British punk gang led by a psychopathic pimp named Woody. After being falsely accused of dealing with a rival Hispanic gang, Mason ends up in a shootout against the Daredevils and kills Woody in the process. He travels to Blister Canyon and finds a new employer, General Warwick - an former military officer and his right-hand man Gunny. Mason helps Warwick and Gunny against the Talons, a tattooed skinhead gang vying for control on the city. After defending Warwick's businesses , Mason is sent to assassinate the Talons' leaders Drake and Grim, before making his way into Paradise City to be hired by a gang named South League. Mason helps the South League defend their from a rival syndicate called Dreg Lords, and he is introduced to their leader, Knox, who offers him alliance and protection against the Sentinels. After doing a few jobs for Knox, he is hired for one final job; destroying Sentinels' generators that power their propaganda broadcasts with bomb-planted RC cars. Afterwards, Mason confronts Axl personally before engaging in a climactic battle, with Axl using a tank-like vehicle and his henchmen pursuing Mason on the streets. Mason kills all of Axl's henchmen before destroying Axl's vehicle. Axl crawls from the wreckage and attempts to shoot Mason, only to be run over by a bus. With Axl's rule completely taken down, Mason hears a radio broadcast from other survivors, pleading for help and claims someone has set things right. Mason then drives away to an unknown location. ===== Orville (Lou Costello) is the oldest orphan at the Hideaway Orphans Home. He accidentally hides inside a truck heading to a top-secret laboratory. There he is placed under the supervision of lab worker Lester (Bud Abbott) to help load supplies onto an experimental rocket ship. While on board with Lester, Orville hits the ignition button and the rocket ship blasts off, flying across the country and eventually to New Orleans, where Mardi Gras is in progress. Lester and Orville, dressed in their spacesuits, witness the grotesquely costumed celebrants and conclude that they have successfully landed on Mars. Meanwhile, two escaped convicts, Harry the Horse (Jack Kruschen) and Mugsy (Horace McMahon), stumble upon the rocket ship, don another pair of spacesuits and head to New Orleans to rob a bank. Lester and Orville are wrongly accused of the crime and rush back to the rocket ship, where Mugsy and Harry force them to launch into outer space. The rocket ship lands on Venus, where the four men are quickly captured by female guards and brought to Queen Allura (Mari Blanchard). She informs them that Venus is inhabited only by women, as men were banished a long time ago. She takes more than a liking to Orville, however, and decides that he can stay if he is true to her. Orville agrees, and has Harry and Mugsy imprisoned. But Mugsy convinces one of the female guards to flirt with Orville to prove to Queen Allura that he cannot be trusted. Disillusioned with Orville, the Queen orders the men to leave Venus. Upon returning to the Earth, the men are lauded as heroes in a parade, but Allura, who is watching the celebration from Venus, sends a spaceship to Earth that drops a cake on Orville's head. ===== The player controls Erik the Viking, and it's Erik's task to find his family, who have been kidnapped by the evil Dogfighters. In the first part of the game, Erik is on the mainland. He makes preparations for sailing, finds his weapons and gathers together a crew, who include Blind Thorkhild, Sven the Strong and Ragnar Forkbeard. Most of the game is set on the sea, with Erik steering his ship, the Golden Dragon, through the northern seas. He visits a number of different islands to collect the necessary items and meet the necessary characters to rescue his family and win the game. These include an enchantress in a cave hidden in a forest, the wizard Al Kwasarmi on a stone quay, and the enchanter's daughter Freya. The enchanter's study contains a list of the items that Erik needs to complete the game, and Al Kwasarmi makes them into the ribbon that Erik needs to rescue his family. A dragon may also interrupt Erik's quest! ===== The barn dance of the title is the occasion which brings together Minnie Mouse and her two suitors: Mickey and Peg-Leg Pete. The latter two and their vehicles are first seen arriving at Minnie's house in an attempt to pick her up for the dance. Mickey turns up in his horse-cart while Pete in a newly purchased automobile. Minnie initially chooses Pete to drive her to the dance but the automobile unexpectedly breaks down. She resorts to accepting Mickey's invitation. They are later seen dancing together, but Mickey proves to be a rather clumsy dancer as he repeatedly steps on Minnie's feet. She consequently turns down his invitation for a second dance. She instead accepts that of Pete, who proves to be a better dancing partner. Mickey then attempts to solve his problem by placing a balloon in his shorts. That apparently helps him to be "light on his feet" and he proceeds to ask Minnie for another dance. She accepts and is surprised to find his dancing skills to have apparently improved. Pete soon discovers Mickey's trick and points it out to Minnie. Minnie is visibly disgusted by this attempt at deception. As a result, she leaves Mickey and resumes dancing with Pete, leaving Mickey crying on the floor. ===== Peg-Leg Pete is depicted as a leading soldier of the former army, and Mickey as a conscript of the latter one. Before joining the army, Mickey has to pass a physical examination. This scene depicts Mickey becoming the subject of physical and emotional abuse. After passing the examination, he is given a machine gun and is sent to battle. Mickey's combat efforts are comical in depiction but prove effective enough in forcing the enemy to retreat. In the end, Mickey smacks a line of advancing soldiers on the head with a mallet, and is hailed as a hero by his fellow soldiers. ===== Rahmat (Chhabi Biswas), a middle-age fruit seller from Afghanistan, comes to Calcutta to hawk his merchandise. He befriends a small Bengali girl called Mini (Oindrila Tagore aka Tinku Tagore) who reminds him of his daughter back in Afghanistan. He stays at a boarding house with his countrymen. One day, Rahmat receives a letter with news of his daughter's illness; he decides to leave for his country. Since he is short of money he sells his goods on credit to increase his business. Later, when he goes to collect his money, one of his customers abuses him. In the fight that ensues, Rahmat warns that he will not tolerate abuse and stabs the guy when he does not stop. In the court Rahmat's lawyer tries to obfuscate the facts but, in his characteristic and simple fashion, Rahmat states the truth in a matter- of-fact way. The judge, pleased with Rahmat's honesty, gives him 10 years' rigorous imprisonment instead of the death sentence. On the day of his release he goes to meet Mini and discovers that she has grown up into a 14-year-old girl who is about to get married. Mini does not recognize the aged Rahmat, who realizes that his daughter must have forgotten him, too. Mini's father advises him to go back to his homeland and Mini's mother gives Rahmat the money for travel out of the wedding budget to which Mini agrees; she also sends a gift for Rahmat's daughter. ===== House's ketamine treatment has worn off, and he has to diagnose Dr. Ezra Powell (played by Joel Grey), a 71-year-old renowned pioneer in the field of medical research who collapsed while studying cancer in lab rats. House puts Powell through diagnostic rigors, but the team is unable to come up with a conclusive diagnosis, and Powell's health continues to deteriorate. Becoming increasingly debilitated, Powell ultimately demands that the team stop the litany of medical tests and euthanize him. House strikes a deal with him and asks for one day to do tests on him. When House fails to diagnose Powell in one day, he visits him in his room to give him the lethal morphine dose. Instead of killing him, House puts Powell in a coma, so that he can do his diagnosis in peace. Cameron becomes disgusted with House for acting against the wish of the patient and for tricking him just so that House can solve his puzzle. House says to Cameron that you can either save a patient or you can let him die but you cannot do both. House also asks Cameron to read a medical journal which states that Dr.Ezra Powell had performed radiology treatment as an experiment on many babies without the consent of their parent. House notices that Powell has lost reflex capabilities in his right arm, and wakes Powell from his coma to find that Powell has also lost sensation in his abdomen and right leg. House ends up diagnosing Powell with amyloidosis and Chase finds that it is of sub-type AA, and therefore is a terminal illness. The following morning, Cuddy informs House that Powell died at 2:30 am, although had been declared stable at 2:00 am. House then goes to Cameron, who is crying in the hospital chapel, and tells her that he is proud of her indicating that Cameron had overcome her fear and helped to end the life of the patient according to his wish. ===== Lando (Rizky Hanggono) was a photographer whose fiancée had just left him. In his distress, he met a busway ticket counter girl called Kalin (Dian Sastrowardoyo). Lando's passion for life was revived, but it didn't last long. Without apparent reason, Lando left Kalin, who became very angry and heart-broken. As time passed, Lando, still in distress, found that Kalin had become a supermodel, and saw her presence everywhere. Lando yearned to see Kalin again and explain why he had left her. He finally got the opportunity and met Kalin, but this encounter again ended tragically as Kalin ran into an accident and turned blind. Later on, Kalin obtained a cornea donor that enabled her to see again, but she could not seem to find Lando, whom she was actually very much in love with. ===== Famed novelist Paul Sheldon is the author of a successful series of Victorian romance novels featuring a character named Misery Chastain. Wanting to focus on more serious stories, he writes a manuscript for a new novel that he hopes will launch his post-Misery career. While traveling from Silver Creek, Colorado to his home in New York City, Paul is caught in a blizzard and his car goes off the road, rendering him unconscious. A nurse named Annie Wilkes finds Paul and brings him to her remote home. Paul regains consciousness and finds himself bedridden with broken legs and a dislocated shoulder. Annie claims to be his "number one fan" and talks at length about him and his novels. Out of gratitude, Paul lets Annie read his new manuscript. While feeding him, she is angered by the profanity in his new work and spills soup on him, but apologizes. Soon after, Annie reads the latest Misery novel, discovers that Misery dies at the end of the book, and flies into a rage. She reveals to Paul that nobody knows where he is and locks him in his room. The next morning, Annie forces Paul to burn his new manuscript. When he is well enough to get out of bed, she insists he write a new novel titled Misery's Return, in which he brings the character back to life. Paul complies, believing Annie might kill him. One day, when Annie is away, Paul begins stockpiling his painkillers. He tries poisoning Annie during dinner by spiking her wine with crushed painkillers but fails after she accidentally knocks over her glass. Paul later finds a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about Annie's past. He discovers that she was tried for the deaths of several infants, but the trial collapsed due to lack of evidence. Annie had quoted lines from his Misery novels during her trial. Annie later drugs Paul and straps him to the bed. When he wakes, she tells him that she knows he has been out of his room and breaks his ankles with a sledgehammer to prevent him from escaping again. The local sheriff, Buster, is investigating Paul's disappearance. When a shopkeeper informs the sheriff he has sold Annie considerable quantities of typing paper, Buster pays Annie a visit. When he finds Paul drugged in the basement, Annie fatally shoots Buster with a shotgun; she tells Paul that they must die together. He agrees, on the condition that he must finish the novel in order to "give Misery back to the world." He conceals a can of lighter fluid in his pocket. When the manuscript is done, Paul asks for a cigarette and two glasses of champagne, to which Annie complies. When she returns with the champagne, he sets the manuscript on fire. As Annie rushes to save it, Paul strikes her with the typewriter and they engage in a violent struggle, with Paul stuffing her mouth full of the burned novel in retaliation, and suffering a gunshot wound to the shoulder from Annie's revolver. Paul manages to trip Annie, causing her to hit her head on the typewriter. Paul crawls out of the room, but Annie suddenly attacks him once again. Paul grabs a metal doorstop and viciously bashes her in the face, finally killing her. Eighteen months later, Paul, now walking with a cane, meets his agent, Marcia, in a restaurant in New York City. The two discuss his first post-Misery novel, and Marcia tells him about the positive early buzz. Paul replies that he wrote the novel for himself as a way to help deal with the horrors of his captivity. Marcia asks if he would consider a non-fiction book about his captivity, but Paul—who suffers psychological trauma from the experience—declines. Paul then sees Annie approaching him, only to realize that he is hallucinating. In actuality, the figure he saw is a waitress, who tells Paul that she is his number one fan. Paul meekly replies "That's very sweet of you." ===== This book consists of two separate stories, making up the two parts of the book's title. The first story, Hardboiled, is written from the perspective of a woman who is hiking alone, passes a strange shrine and ends up in a hotel with a couple of surreal incidents that follow. Her back story is filled in as a mixture of narrative and dream sequences. The second story, Hard Luck, is about a woman whose sister Kuni is in a coma. Kuni's fiancé leaves her after the incident, but his brother continues to visit. It becomes apparent that he is interested in the protagonist of the story. ===== A bar girl from Hawaii, a religious zealot and a love-struck Marine struggle with sin and salvation just after World War II while Sadie Thompson kicks out several songs, including the Oscar-nominated "Blue Pacific Blues". ===== Having been revealed as a girl in Hidden Warrior, Tamír (previously Tobin), tries to rule her kingdom with the wizard Arkoniel at her side, and trying to hide the love she feels for Ki. But what she doesn't understand is why Brother, her dead demon brother, has come back with more power than before, stronger as she draws closer to a battle with Korin... ===== SRK (Sayaji Shinde) is a real estate contractor. He uses muscle power to encroach land and make money. His rival Gopala Krishna "GK" (Nagarjuna Akkineni) is the 'Boss' of GK Constructions. GK has the power to handle goons as well as the real estate business. He calls for applications from MBA graduates as his personal secretary. None of the applicants reach his expectations. He accidentally meets Anuradha "Anu" (Nayantara) and thinks that she is fit for the job. As a 'Boss' he is tough with his staff but also cares for them. During a trip to Malaysia, Anu and GK get closer and Anu loses her heart to GK. When she is about to confess her love, Anu gets involved in a petty issue and faces the wrath of GK. Consequently, she requested to resign from her job, while she is on duty for her last one month, GK calls for interviews for his personal secretary again and zeroes in on Sruthi (Poonam Bajwa). It is revealed that she was planted in GK's office by SRK. In order to get her father Ramamurthy released from a false case, Sruthi steals a tender file. However, she does not hand it over to SRK and demands her father's release. The crooked SRK does not listen to her. At this juncture, she tries to escape from the scene and is saved by GK at the insistence of Anu. However, Anu is injured in the attack by goons in the process, but goes straight to the Tenders office and files the tender to save GK from a huge loss and to fulfill his ambition of securing his dream project. When GK is about to thank her, she admits her love for him, only to learn of his past. In the flashback, GK reveals that he loved Sanjana (Shriya) and married her. She died in a tsunami shortly after. He says he can't replace Sanjana. GK refuses Anu's love politely. As time passes, Sanjana's mother Sumitra (Sumalatha) dies of illness in Malaysia and her husband Viswanath (Nasar) tells GK that her last wish is the marriage of GK with Anu. GK also gets a feeling that Sanjana also wants the same. He returns to India and unites with Anu and the film ends on a happy note. ===== At City Hall, Herc stumbles across Mayor Royce receiving oral sex from his secretary. Concerned for his career, Herc approaches Carver for advice about the situation, but Carver says the problem is beyond his pay grade and suggests they take it to Major Stan Valchek, who has more experience with politics. Valchek meets with Herc and reassures him that he could climb in rank if he keeps quiet about the incident, and can use the information against Royce if the mayor moves to punish him. Wilson visits Carcetti's house and finds him playing Battleship with his daughter, having assumed he has already lost the race for mayor. Carcetti meets with members of the Fraternal Order of Police, who admit that they are reluctant to endorse him with Royce leading in the polls. Carcetti convinces them to hold back their active support for Royce. As they leave, Valchek tells him that he achieved the best outcome possible under the circumstances. Wilson urges Carcetti to prepare for his debate with Royce, but the candidate remains pessimistic. Royce considers moving Herc out of his security detail and checks with Parker to see if he has friends high up in the department. In prison, Namond and his mother De'Londa visit his father Wee-Bey, who asks how Namond's work with Bodie is progressing; De'Londa threatens to withhold money for Namond's school supplies if he doesn't commit himself to Bodie. Back in the neighborhood, Namond and Michael ask if the latter and his younger brother can work for Bodie to earn money for school supplies. When Bodie refuses to employ them both, Namond suggests that Michael could take his job until he has the funds he needs. Carver and Bunk drive up, still looking for Lex; Bodie promises to contact them if he sees Lex, knowing that he is probably dead. While Namond and Michael meet their friends, Stanfield lieutenant Monk Metcalf arrives and hands out money. When Michael refuses to accept the money, Marlo confronts Michael and is impressed by his defiance. Donut pulls up in a stolen SUV, but the boys are spotted by Carver and forced to flee. Randy is caught by Officer Eddie Walker, who confiscates his money for school. Carver warns the boys against stealing more cars. Namond returns home to find that his mother has laid out new clothes for him despite her threats. Bunk pressures Lex's mother to give up her son's whereabouts, believing that Lex has fled from the police. Back at Homicide, Norris investigates what turns out to be the murder of a state's witness; Sergeant Jay Landsman informs Valchek about the case. At the MCU, Freamon prepares to serve subpoenas on political figures in connection with the Barksdale investigation. Sydnor and Pearlman are both worried that the move will hurt their careers. Pearlman realizes that Freamon played her by holding the investigation until now and that he lied when he said it was pushed back by fresh cases. Freamon serves developer Andy Krawczyk and State Senator Clay Davis, which are delivered by Greggs and Sydnor respectively. Davis and Krawczyk threaten to withhold financial support from Royce, who in turn puts pressure on Commissioner Ervin Burrell. Burrell and Deputy Commissioner William Rawls realize that Freamon is the cause of the problem, with Rawls resolving to find a way to remove Freamon from the MCU. Freamon and Greggs catch Marlo's voice on the wire and, knowing that his crew has not been linked to any violence, wonder why they hear what sounds like target practice in the background. At his gym, Dennis "Cutty" Wise continues to train one-time drug dealer Justin, who is preparing for an upcoming bout. Cutty is approached by the mothers of multiple students who hope to get a date with him. Cutty pays special attention to Michael, who fights with Justin after he interrupts his time using the heavy bag with Namond. Cutty breaks up the boys and offers to personally train Michael, but he declines. Meanwhile, Bubbles and his young protégé Sherrod continue to make their living selling goods from a shopping cart. Sherrod struggles to add up the price of their wares and Bubbles criticizes him for his poor math skills. Bubbles tries to hide his drug use from Sherrod, who is worried about Bubbles' criticism and tells him that he is willing to go back to school. In preparation for the school year, Prez cleans up his classroom and meets with the other teachers to discuss maintaining class rules. Assistant Principal Donnelly tasks one of her students, Crystal Judkins, to deliver secondhand school supplies to Dukie. Bubbles and Sherrod come to the school to discuss possible enrollment for Sherrod; Bubbles has a moment of recognition as he passes Prez. Despite being distracted, Carcetti is able to come up with effective answers as part of his debate preparation. He gets a visit from Valchek and is told about the death of the witness, giving him useful ammunition against Royce. During the televised debate, both Carcetti's campaign team and the Homicide unit watch as Carcetti rebuts Royce's assertion that Baltimore's crime rate has fallen by bringing up the murdered witness. Royce's response is labored, defensive, awkward, and evasive; Carcetti's team is pleased while Royce's people seem worried. Burrell and Rawls become nervous about their failure to inform the mayor about the murder. ===== Set in 1968 Junction City, Kansas sometimes called "Junk Town" reflect on the history of "East Ninth Street" during the 1940s when famous jazz musicians played the nightclubs. In 1968, the area has deteriorated into strip clubs and cheap bars where Vietnam War draftees from nearby Fort Riley stop and drink. People in the group include a drunk (Don Washington) who lost a leg in World War II, a taxi dispatcher (Isaac Hayes), a saloon owner (Queen Bey), and a crazy bag lady (Kaycee Moore). (Nadine Griffith) who is trying to get out of the business, but is forced to work by a malicious boy friend (Byron Myrick) and the fact that she has to provide for her baby (Meagan Cordero). Martin Sheen also stars as a white preacher who likes the people in the area better than his own congregation. ===== Sydney Carton, a drunken English lawyer, discovers that Charles Darnay, a man he once defended, is a French aristocrat trying to escape the French Revolution. While he envies the man over the love of a woman, Lucie Manette, his conscience is pricked and he resolves to help him escape the guillotine. ===== The story begins with Jack Baker and Jamie Gillis telling jokes as they watch porn and talk about women. They fantasize how their lives would be better if they were pimps with women working for them. They discuss opening an escort service featuring "new wave bitches" who would become aroused after they hear new wave music. They fall asleep to TV static, and much of the remainder of the film depicts the two men dreaming about different sexual encounters with women who become sexually receptive after listening to new wave. ===== The story is about Jayakanthan (Kunchacko Boban) who comes to claim his father Narendran's property in their native village. There he meets Vinodini (Samyuktha Varma) who is the panchayat president and a strict follower of the rules. Swathi (Asin) is Jayakanthan's cousin and her father Balakrishnan Nambiar (Janardhanan) is worried that Jayakanthan, his nephew, has come to marry her and inherit their property. Bhargavan (Sreenivasan) has usurped Narendran's land, but Jayakanthan is unaware of this and becomes his good friend. The remaining of the plot is about how things fall into place. ===== On a sunny day in an affluent suburb in Connecticut, a fit and tanned middle-aged man in a bathing suit, Ned Merrill, drops by a pool party being held by old friends. They offer him a cocktail while nursing hangovers from the night before. As they share stories, Ned realizes there is a series of backyard swimming pools that could form a "river" back to his house, making it possible for him to "swim his way home". Ned dives into the pool, emerging at the other end and beginning his journey. Ned's behavior perplexes his friends, who apparently know worrisome things about his recent past which he seems to have forgotten. As Ned travels, he encounters other neighbors. He meets 20-year-old Julie, who used to babysit his daughters (whom he repeatedly refers to as "at home playing tennis"), and reveals his plan to her; she joins him. They crash another pool party and sip champagne. While chatting in a grove of trees, Julie reveals that she had a schoolgirl crush on Ned. After she tells him about two incidents of sexual harassment in her workplace, Ned begins talking about how he will protect her, making plans for the two of them. Discomfited by his intimate approaches, Julie runs away. Ned meets a wealthy older couple, unbothered by his eccentric behavior but also unimpressed by his posturing. He then encounters Kevin, a lonely young boy, whom he tries to teach how to swim. They use an abandoned, empty pool, which Ned urges the boy to imagine is filled with water. The boy warms to this method, and soon is "swimming" the length of the empty pool. As Ned takes his leave, he glances back and sees the boy bouncing on the diving board over the deep end of the empty pool. He rushes back to remove him from the diving board, then departs. Ned fails to make more than a superficial connection with the people he meets, being obsessed with his journey, and becoming increasingly out of touch with reality. The neighborhood consists of judgmental, well-heeled people intent on one-upmanship, and Ned is confused by hints that his life might not be as untroubled as he believes. Ned walks into another party where the hostess calls him a "party crasher". He encounters a bubbly girl named Joan, who does not know him. Ned asks her to join him, and Joan is intrigued until his speech becomes more fantastical. A friend leads her away from him. Ned jumps into the pool, making a big splash which grabs the attention of the guests. When he emerges from the water, he notices a hot dog cart that used to be his. Ned gets into a spat with the homeowner, who claims to have bought it at a white elephant sale. Ned shows up at the backyard pool of Shirley Abbott, a stage actress with whom he had an affair several years earlier. His warm memories of their time together contrast with her own experience of being "the other woman". Unable to reconcile his feelings with the pain he caused, Ned wades into the deep end of the pool. Ned trudges barefoot alongside a busy highway, then reaches a crowded public swimming pool. After being treated demeaningly by the gatekeeper, he encounters a group of local shop owners who derisively ask him "How do you like our water?" They indicate surprise at his appearance at such a plebeian location and ask him when he will settle his unpaid bills. When some of them make vicious comments about his wife's snobbish tastes and his out-of-control daughters' recent troubles with the law, Ned flees. The skies darken and rain begins falling. Amid a downpour at sunset, a shivering, limping Ned staggers home; the tennis court where his daughters were supposedly playing is in disrepair, and his house is locked and deserted, with several windows broken. Anguished, Ned repeatedly tries to open the door, before slumping to the ground in the doorway. ===== Jon Katz faces a midlife crisis. His wife moves out because he was growing too distant, their daughter Emma has moved to a place of her own, and he is left in the house with their two labrador retrievers and a severe case of writer's block. A dog breeder who has read his books convinces him to take in an abused and hyperactive border collie named Devon - and his crazy new life begins. ===== ===== Infinite Undiscovery takes place in a world where the Dreadknight Leonid and his Order of Chains bound the world to the Moon from all regions. The Main Chain is attached to the castle in the fallen Kingdom of Cassandra (formerly the kingdom of King Volsung) - wherein Leonid's headquarters lies. Any region bound with a Chain suffers blight consequences: crops wither and animals die. Thus, Sigmund the Liberator goes forth, alongside his Liberation Force, to unchain the world. An unwitting young man, Capell, is fatefully thrown into this conflict, of which he wants no involvement. Inevitably, these chain of events will change his life and those around him, forever... ===== Bagavathi (Vijay) owns a tea shop, while Vadivelu (Vadivelu), works at his tea shop. Bagavathi lives with his younger brother Guna (Jai). He meets a girl named Anjali (Reema Sen). She ends up appreciating his kindness and they fall in love. Guna has a girlfriend named Priya (Monica), with whom he secretly develops a physical relationship. Guna's love is objected by Priya's father Easwarapandiyan (Ashish Vidyarthi). Bagavathy tries to convince Easwarapandiyan to let Priya and Guna marry, but is humiliated. Guna attempts to marry Priya without his brother's knowledge, but Easwarapandiyan kills Guna. Guna, in his last moments, promises he will be with his brother forever. After Guna's death, everyone comes to know that Priya is pregnant. Bagavathi thinks that Guna will be reborn again. However, Easwarapandiyan attempts to kill the child before birth. Bagavathi challenges him, saying the child will touch the earth. In order to do so, Ganga (Thalaivasal Vijay) helps him turn into a gangster. With the help of Anjali and Vadivelu, Bagavathi overcomes all hurdles by Easwarapandiyan and manages to protect Priya to allow for a safe birth of his brother's child. In the end, Bagavathi avenges the death of his brother by killing Easwarapandian. ===== Daja's Book, the third installment in the Circle of Magic quartet by Tamora Pierce, is a young adult fantasy novel. Daja Kisubo, an outcast to her people after she was the lone survivor of her family ship's wreck, and a smith mage in training, travels with her three friends and their teachers north of Emelan, to a valley plagued with drought and forest fires. While she and her friends are in Golden Ridge Valley, she creates a living metal vine. Polyam, wirok of Tenth Caravan Idaram, bids on the vine. ===== Now aging and ailing, the one-time celebrated author Leonard Schiller has been forgotten by his readers, literary colleagues, and critics during the decade he has struggled to complete what he knows will be his final novel. When the brash, ambitious Brown University graduate student Heather Wolfe approaches him with a request for access to his thoughts and recollections for the Master's thesis she hopes will reintroduce the public to his work, he initially refuses to cooperate. But the young woman is relentless, and he finally agrees to weekly meetings in which he slowly begins to open up to her as he reluctantly recalls his past. Slightly suspicious of Heather's motives is Leonard's daughter Ariel, a former professional dancer who supports herself by teaching yoga and Pilates. Rapidly approaching forty, Ariel has stopped using birth control with her boyfriend Victor without telling him about her determination to have a baby. When he learns about her plan, she ends their relationship; at the same time, Ariel's former lover Casey Davis returns to New York City after a five-year absence. He and Ariel had reached an impasse in their relationship because of his refusal to have a child, and as they begin to see each other again, he is quick to let her know his position hasn't changed. The film focuses on these four individuals and their evolution as they are thrust out of their comfort zones and into arenas that force them to examine their lives and decide how much they are willing to compromise and sacrifice their own desires in order to accommodate the demands of others. ===== Sang-do (Ryoo Seung-bum) is a fast talking crystal meth dealer who considers himself more of a businessman than a criminal. Sang- do has been involved in the drug business all of his life. His uncle was a drug dealer (Kim Hee-ra), specializing in manufacturing crystal meth. Sang- do's mother died when one of his uncle’s meth labs blew up in an accident. Do Jin-kwang (Hwang Jung-min) is a hard-nosed cop who doesn't always play by the rules. Do's partner died four years ago, while trying to take down the top drug dealer Jang Chul (Lee Do-kyeong) in Busan. Since his partner's death, Do has been driven to arrest Jang Chul and this time he plans to use Sang-do to finally take him down. ===== While the husbands stand outside on the terrace, drinking and boasting; their wives are inside talking about those husbands (and laughing). In this black comedy, Colin and Stephanie have invited Tony and Maddy to lunch in Ealing. As the men uneasily try at conversation, the laughter of their wives, which seems so uninhibited in comparison with the men's struggles at communication, is a constant interruption. The women finally join the men, and a confrontation results. The stage play contains a second act, where these positions are reversed. Colin and Tony are now behaving freely, while the women feel more constrained. The play moves from a garden party to the grounds of a mental hospital. ===== The film is told entirely in retrospect, from a veteran of the American Civil War who may already have been executed. During the war, his job was to play music for a general who decided, in the soldier's words, "where hundreds of men would die." He has come home from the war skeptical about the meaning of life (or that there is a meaning), and trying to search for answers. He attempts to express his thoughts and doubts to his wife Becky, but she remains unconvinced that life is horrible and thinks he is crazy and going to hell. Convinced that people have come to have too much influence over art, he tries to play music not written by people by drawing music lines on his glasses and playing the stars as if they were notes. He also tries to get in touch with God, but, not wanting to be intrusive, he merely hangs about outside the church and whispers through the windows, "God...hey, God...what're you doin'?" Finally, after many hints, it is revealed why he is sentenced to death: he fought in the war because a rich man paid him to fight in his (the rich man's) place. When the rich man showed up to see how he was fighting, he found the soldier standing and playing the concertina during a battle. The rich man gave him a gun and started yelling at him, so in frustration the soldier shot the rich man instead of the Confederates, picked up the concertina, and left him lying in the field. "He killed the wrong man in the war." As he is about to be executed, the soldier has an epiphany: "My God...I wasted my whole life thinking about this stuff. I should have just gone fishing! I should have had a sandwich, or had a few laughs! Now I get it!" His illumination is cut off by the firing squad. He, perhaps in some sort of spirit form, walks through a graveyard and muses, "I'm gonna miss being alive." The credits follow. ===== The novel's hero is Spenser, a private investigator in Boston. Spenser, who served as an infantryman in the 1st Infantry Division during the Korean WarRobert B. Parker, Paper Doll, G.P. Putnam & Son, 1993, page 1: "You fought in Korea. Were you an officer?". and as a former State trooper, is hired by Boston aristocrat Loudon Tripp to investigate his wife's murder, and Spenser soon uncovers upper-class scandals and a corpse who might not be dead after all. ===== This book tells readers about a family vacation in Penobscot Bay, off Maine Island. The girl describes every day as a great adventure, and how amazed she by the forces of nature. Her time on the island is spent living in the moment, exploring the rocks which magically transform into a castle. The girl continues to explore, going under the sea and finding wonderful worlds and animals that people often do not notice. The girl describes Maine Island as a magical place where the stars at night look like a pair of eyes watching her. The girl plays with her sister and her dog enjoying the fog of the mornings and the smell of grass, as well as the power of the sheer wind brought by a hurricane that destroys everything in its way. But even after the storm everything returns to calm, and at the end of her time on the island she is ready to return with her family to the big city and face the routine again. In the illustrations of the book by McCloskey, the girl is always happy, playing and exploring her surrounding in Maine Island. ===== White Knight Chronicles begins in the kingdom of Balandor, where Princess Cisna is having a coming-of-age banquet. Leonard, the main protagonist; his childhood friend, Yulie; and the Avatar (a new employee at Rapacci Wines, where the three work), are tasked with delivering wine for the party. Once the delivery is completed, they decide to stay for the party, which is soon raided by an evil organization called the Magi. In the ensuing commotion, King Valtos, Cisna's father, is killed by a man in dark armor, causing a shocked Cisna to regain her voice (which was "lost" when her mother, Queen Floraine, was assassinated). Leonard grabs the distraught Cisna's hand and leads her to safety in the castle's lower levels. There, they find a giant suit of armor, an "Incorruptus"; and a strange gauntlet called the "Ark". Using the Ark to merge with the armor, Leonard becomes the White Knight, which can the combat the Magi. After eliminating a large monster from the castle, Cisna is kidnapped by the Magi. Sarvain, the royal advisor, tasks Leonard to rescue the Princess with the White Knight; Yulie, the Avatar, and a "humble traveler" named Eldore join him. The motive behind the kidnapping is Cisna's ability to unlock sealed Knights, of which she is unaware of at first. The leader of Magi is a general called Dregias, the man who killed Valtos. All that is known about him is that he is capable of transforming into the winged Black Knight, Ebonwings. ===== Bugs Bunny meets Nero in Acrobatty Bunny, animated by Richard Bickenbach. A circus is being set up just above Bugs' rabbit hole, causing much noise and vibration. The lion cage is set up directly above the hole, and the lion takes deep sniffs (alternatively yanking Bugs towards the hole or throwing him back) to determine that the animal below is Bugs. When the lion (whom Bugs eventually refers to as "Nero") roars again, Bugs comes to the surface to see what's going on, riding an elevator that makes twists and turns. Bugs tries to reason with the lion, but soon makes a hasty escape when Nero takes a swipe at him. Nero manages to get out of his cage, and chases Bugs around the circus grounds. Bugs at one point ducks into a dressing room, coming out as a clown trying to convince Nero to laugh, which he eventually does — until Bugs takes some whacks at the lion with a wooden board. The lion then chases Bugs into the big top, where they swing around acrobat swings. Eventually, Bugs tricks Nero into a cannon and sets the cannon off, causing Nero to do a hula in his 'skirt', plays the ukulele. ===== American travel journalist Pete McKell (Michael Vartan) joins a small group of tourists on a crocodile- watching river cruise in Kakadu National Park of Australia's Northern Territory, led by wildlife researcher Kate Ryan (Radha Mitchell). Toward the end of the cruise, Everett (Robert Taylor) spots a flare in the distance and the group head up river to investigate. They eventually come across a half- sunken wreck when something crashes into their boat, splitting the side. Kate manages to steer the boat ashore a small island in the middle of the river. Moments after, Everett is pulled into the water by an unseen predator and disappears. Kate realises they are in a crocodile's territory and explains they must leave the island by nightfall, as the tide will start to rise and the island will be submerged. Two locals, Neil (Sam Worthington) and Collin (Damien Richardson), arrive at the island but the crocodile smashes into their boat; Neil manages to swim to the island safely but Collin is killed. As night falls, Neil carefully swims to the riverbank in order to string a rope between two trees, creating a zip-line that will allow the group to cross the river. Everett's wife Mary Ellen (Caroline Brazier) crosses first, only to freeze in fear halfway across. Allen (Geoff Morrell), becoming impatient and aggressive, attempts to get himself and his daughter Sherry (Mia Wasikowska) across with Mary Ellen still on the line. While trying to secure the rope, Neil is attacked and killed by the crocodile. The tree holding the rope breaks and the three on the line fall into the water. They manage to swim back to the island, but as Allen crawls up the shore, the huge crocodile lunges out of the water and throws him back into the river where he is dragged under. Later that night, Pete suggests they should use bait on a hook to distract the crocodile on one side of the island while everyone else swims to the riverbank; Kate hooks two dead birds. After a long wait, the anchor is suddenly pulled and the group make a break for the far shore. The crocodile suddenly lets go of the bait, seizes Kate and drags her underwater. Pete hurriedly makes the swim across the river with Kate's dog Kevin in tow and heads off into the bush to meet up with the others. As day breaks, Pete is forced to chase Kevin into the bush after he runs off. He falls down a narrow chute into a large carve, where he discovers Neil's mangled corpse. He realises that the cave is the crocodile's lair and, to his surprise, finds Kate alive but badly injured. Pete attempts to carry her out but the crocodile returns. It makes several attempts to kill them both and Pete's hand gets severely bitten. Pete then props a large broken log against a boulder, with the sharp end pointing outwards, and as the crocodile lunges at him, Pete successfully impales it through the head, killing it. He escapes from the cave with Kate to join the surviving tourists and waiting paramedics. As the credits roll, the camera focuses on a newspaper article detailing Pete's heroic battle with the beast and rescue of Kate. ===== The movie starts out with a meeting between the rulers of Baekje, Silla, Tang China, and Goguryeo. They are arguing why the Korean southern kingdoms have to pay tribute to China, even though Tang is only 50 years old. The king of Silla sides with the Emperor of Tang. The movie flashes forward to the scene in which Baekje soldiers rush to the king with ill news of Silla and Tang allying together, bringing an army of 50,000 soldiers. The Baekje council discusses battle plans. But in the end, all of the officials run away out of cowardice. The king of Baekje calls for the great warrior, Kyebaek. He accepts the offer to protect his country after three glasses of wine. Kaebaek is forced to kill his family in fear of something worse happening to them. Soon, Gyebaek engages the Silla forces in so called "battles" where the opponents insult the others with Gyebaek winning in the beginning of these battles. ===== Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson The story, told partly in flashback and narrated by Clem Miniver, commences on VE Day as Clem and Judy return home from war service and Toby returns from a foster family in America. Judy, a corporal driver, is loved by Tom Foley, a captain in the Royal Engineers, but she is besotted with a general (Leo Genn) married but separated and twice her age. Kay Miniver has also conducted a brief but platonic affair with an American colonel. Clem is now restless and dissatisfied; he successfully applies for a design contract in Brazil. But Kay, unknown to him, has developed a major cardiac condition and has one year at most to live. Despite this, she persuades the general to return to his wife, leaving Judy free to marry Tom. The wedding goes ahead. Clem decides to stay in London and brings Tom into his architectural practice, and soon after he's made aware of his wife's illness. Satisfied that her family are safe and happy, Kay dies. No mention is made of the eldest Miniver son, Vincent, who appeared in the earlier film, possibly because Greer Garson and Richard Ney (the actor who portrayed Vincent) had married and been divorced (1943–1947) by the time The Miniver Story was produced in 1950. ===== Cassie and the Animorphs discover from Ax and Tobias that the Yeerks have set up a dummy logging company, called Dapsen Logging Company, in the woods. The Yeerks want to destroy the forest in order to find the "Andalite bandits," whom they believe to be living there. The Animorphs go to check it out, but are discovered, chased away, and shot at. Cassie and her father later find an injured skunk, that was hit by a Dracon beam in the fighting. Cassie's father finds that there is a good chance that the skunk had recently given birth, and Cassie is stricken with guilt. Cassie suggests to the others that they need to find out how the Yeerks got permission to cut trees in a National Forest. If they didn't have permission, the news media would bring attention to them, something they surely did not want. The group decides to go back and enter the logging camp to find this information. Tobias notices that there are termite tunnels in the building, and they decide to morph termites to get in. Jake causes a distraction by morphing into a wolf while the others (excluding Tobias) morph and enter the building. There is a brief episode where they are controlled by the termite queen's orders and lose control of themselves. Cassie kills the termite queen to free her friends and herself from the queen's control, but felt much guilt by it. The Animorphs get the information they need, disable the Yeerks' defenses, and escape unnoticed. The Animorphs find out that there is a committee of three people who must decide on giving the logging operation a go. One has already voted yes and one has voted no; the other, a man called Farrand, was due to make a visit to the camp in order to make his decision. The Animorphs decide to intercede when Farrand makes his visit, as the Yeerks will surely turn him into a Controller at that point to ensure an affirmative vote. Meanwhile, Cassie is still concerned with the skunk babies and decides to look for them. Tobias is able to tell her where the litter of kits is, having found five and eaten one. Cassie rescues them and the Animorphs take over tending the kits, with Tobias doing much of the skunk-sitting while the other Animorphs are in school. Marco ends up naming the skunk kits after members of The Ramones, such as Joey, Johnny, Marky and C.J. In the final showdown, the Yeerks capture Cassie and Farrand, but she morphs into a skunk and sprays all of the Controllers and Visser Three. Ax makes a bargain with Visser Three, offering information on how to get rid of the skunk smell in return for the release of Farrand. Visser Three agrees, and Farrand is transported to a hospital. As soon as he can, Farrand makes a phone call to vote against the logging, and he will likely bring litigation against the company. In return for the release of the human, Ax tells the Yeerks that grape juice will remove the stink (instead of tomato juice, which at best masks the smell), and Tobias later reports that a pool of grape juice was made for Visser Three to soak in. Visser Three hasn't gotten rid of the skunk smell, and in addition is a "lovely, attractive shade of purple." Morphs {| class="wikitable" |- bgcolor="#DDDD" ! Morpher ! Morphs acquired ! Morphs used |- | Jake | Great horned owl, termite, skunk | Peregrine falcon, great horned owl, wolf, skunk, Siberian tiger, housefly |- | Rachel | Rat (Courtney), termite, skunk | Rat, bald eagle, great horned owl, termite, wolf, skunk, grizzly bear |- | Cassie | Rat (Courtney), termite, skunk | Rat, wolf, great horned owl, termite, skunk, osprey |- | Marco | Great horned owl, termite, skunk | Wolf, great horned owl, termite, skunk, gorilla |- | Ax | Great horned owl, Termite, skunk | Human (Main), great horned owl, termite, skunk |- | Visser Three | -- | Human |} ===== In a theatre, auditions are being held for a new musical production. Director Bernie Dodd (William Holden) watches a number performed by fading star Frank Elgin (Bing Crosby) and suggests that he be cast in the leading role. This is met with strong opposition from Cook, the show's producer. However, Bernie insists on the down-on-his-luck Frank, who is living in a modest apartment with his wife Georgie (Grace Kelly). They are grateful for the opportunity, though not entirely certain Frank can handle the work. Initially Frank leads Bernie to believe that Georgie is the reason for the decline in his career. Bernie strongly criticizes her, first behind her back and eventually to her face. What he doesn't know is that the real reason that Frank's career has ended is his insecurity. When their five-year-old son Johnny was hit by a car and died while in Frank's care, he was devastated. Partly using that as an excuse to cover up his insecurity, Frank has been reduced to a suicidal alcoholic. Mealy-mouthed to the director's face, Frank is actually a demanding alcoholic who is totally dependent on his wife. Bernie mistakenly blames her for everything that happens during rehearsals, including Elgin's requests for a dresser and a run-of-the-show contract. He believes Georgie to be suicidal and a drunk, when it is actually Frank who is both. Humiliated when he learns the truth, Bernie realizes that behind his hatred of Georgie was a strong attraction to her. His anger melts away and he kisses her. She tells him that it doesn't mean that anything has changed. Elgin's performance is a success on opening night. Afterward, he demands respect from the producer, which he and his wife had not been given before the opening. Previously Georgie had said that if only Frank could stand on his own two feet, she could get away from him. At a party to celebrate the play's opening, Bernie believes Georgie will be free to leave Frank, and tells her that he loves her. Later Frank tells them he has noticed their longing looks, and all three talk. Shortly after, Frank leaves the party. Georgie says goodbye to Bernie, and he tells her he appreciates a woman who is loyal. She kisses him lightly and goes to catch up with Frank. ===== A bald-haired magician named Ala Bahma is nailing self-promoting posters on every conceivable surface, including a tree in which Bugs is living. Bugs protests having his home encroached and his right to private property compromised, until the magician apologizes and offers Bugs a blackberry pie. The rabbit's expression momentarily changes to joy as Ala Bahma magically brandishes a blackberry pie from underneath his cloth, then suddenly splatters it in Bugs's face. As the magician walks away laughing, "What a dumb bunny!", a now-incensed Bugs decides that it is time for payback and says: "Of course you realize this means war!" Bugs exacts his revenge against Ala Bahma through a series of public humiliations during his performance at the Bijou theater. First, Bugs replaces himself with a carrot during Ala Bahma's hat-trick and gets into his outfit. Despite Ala Bahma's objections, Bugs says he wants to help the magician. He goes into his hat and repeats Ala Bahma's hat trick and accepts brief applause. Bugs gets into Ala Bahma's hat, kisses the magician and ties up his mustache. When Ala Bahma unties his mustache, he sees a sign posted by Bugs to tempt him with a carrot. Next, Bugs grabs Ala Bahma's mallet and hits him as he grabs the carrot and eats it. Ala Bahma puts his hand in the hat, only for Bugs to pull the magician in. As Bugs emerges, however, Ala Bahma grabs him and after they fight off-screen, the magician barricades his own hat with wood planks and nails to make sure that Bugs does not get out. Later, Ala Bahma does an Indian Basket Trick performance with Bugs posing as a volunteer. During his trick, he puts the swords in the basket. When Ala Bahma discovers that Bugs has snuck out from behind him while feigning pain, Bugs runs and attempts to jump into his hat but hits it on the barricade. Ala Bahma charges at Bugs to kill him, but Bugs plays a statues game on the magician. Once Ala Bahma gets close enough, Bugs dresses up as a fencer for Ala Bahma to fight him. Bugs escapes to the balcony to heckle Ala Bahma ("What a performance, D'Artagnan, what a performance!"). Realizing his mistake, Ala Bahma uses a shotgun and fires at Bugs. However, Bugs appears from Ala Bahma's hat and places a cigar in his mouth and lights it up, causing it to promptly explode, stunning him. After kissing Ala Bahma, Bugs brandishes his own blackberry pie. He says to the audience, quoting Red Skelton's "Mean Widdle Kid", "If I dood it, I get a whippin'...I DOOD IT!" and splatters the pie in Ala Bahma's face. Bugs ends his performance with "Aloha 'Oe" on a ukulele as he descends into the hat and the cartoon irises out. ===== The story starts with Visser One, in the body of Marco's mother, Eva. She leaves the house, saying goodbye to her husband and Marco, and heads out to her sailing boat, intending to fake her death so she can leave Earth and become Visser One. She takes her boat out to the ocean, and has a Bug Fighter that is waiting to pick her up to ram the boat, capsizing it. She leaves Earth, and everyone simply assumes that she drowns. In the present day, Edriss is on trial for treason by the Council of Thirteen. She is still inside Eva, and is currently being held in the Yeerk Pool under the city where the Animorphs live. The Council of Thirteen informs Edriss of her charges, which are five charges of treason, four containing the death penalty. Visser Three, her longtime enemy, is her prosecutor and the one who brought the charges against her. The Council of Thirteen orders her to tell her story of the events. At the start of her story, Edriss was stationed on a moon in between the Hork-Bajir homeworld and the Taxxon homeworld. Her task is to search for a Class Five species, which is a species that is powerful, extremely abundant and easy to take over. While training a group of new recruits, she receives information that a Class Five species has been found. This particular species were humans. Two humans were kidnapped by the Skrit Na, and then rescued by Andalites and taken by them to the Taxxon homeworld. A Yeerk Sub-Visser saw them and reported them to Edriss (these particular events are detailed much more in The Andalite Chronicles). Unfortunately, as soon as she receives this news, Edriss is informed she would be transferred to the Taxxon homeworld and be given a Taxxon host. Edriss, along with a fellow Yeerk named Essam 293, steal a Yeerk ship and go looking for the human home world. Back in the present, Visser Three demands that they view a memory dump (a recording of her memory) of Edriss's trip to Earth. It starts with Edriss and Essam finding the planet, and they land on it during the events of the Gulf War. Edriss infests an Iraqi soldier, and finds out from him that the most powerful country on Earth is America. They dispose of the host and fly their ship to Hollywood. There, Edriss infests a drug addict called Jenny Lines who is a struggling actor, and Essam infests a television producer named Lowenstein. At this point the memory dump ends. Garoff, a member of the Council of Thirteen, accuses Edriss of underestimating the humans, and Edriss says the only reason the humans haven't been taken over is because of Visser Three's incompetence. Visser Three says Edriss never had to deal with the "Andalite Bandits" when she was on Earth, and Edriss asks why Visser Three still hasn't defeated the Andalite bandits. At that point the Andalite bandits attack, however, Visser Three and his troops makes short work of them. Edriss realizes that they were simply animals, not the Andalite bandits, and Visser Three just had them brought in to trick the Council into thinking that he did kill the Andalite bandits. Unfortunately, the Council of Thirteen does get fooled by the demonstration, and suddenly Visser Three has a lot more credibility. Visser Three then says he has testimony from a witness who was with Edriss during the time that Edriss did not make any memory dumps. He says it is Essam, however, Edriss says that can't be true since Essam is dead. Visser Three's guard bring in a homeless man named Hildy Gervais, who is revealed to be a former host of Essam. He says that he and one of Edriss's hosts, Allison Kim, fell in love, and so did their Yeerk captors. Eventually they had two children, twins. Edriss says this is true, and Visser Three claims this is proof of Edriss sympathizing with humans. Edriss continues her story, telling how eventually she disposed of Jenny Lines and infested Allison Kim, a scientist. Essam also infested Hildy Gervais. Edriss tells how Allison Kim was a far more intelligent, powerful host than Jenny Lines, and Visser Three demands this is proof that she admires the humans. Visser Three and Edriss get into an argument about whether slow infestation or all-out war is a better way to enslave the humans. Visser Three claims that the only reason Edriss doesn't want all out war is because she doesn't want the humans to actually be taken over, and Edriss argues that all out war would never work. Eventually Visser Three demands that Edriss is given a live memory dump, so they can view exactly what happened. Garoff agrees, and they enter her memory at a point a fair while after Edriss had infested Allison. Garoff demands they view various memories, all showing Edriss enjoying different aspects of human life, her falling in love with Essam/Hildy Gervais, and the birth of her children. Garoff claims that Visser One had become addicted to humans. Garoff ends the live memory dump, and demands Edriss continue the story. Edriss says the children were given up for adoption, and then says she needs a break to eat. Garoff agrees, and the trial is adjourned. She is taken by Visser Three's troops to the lunchroom of the Yeerk Pool, where she sees a Controller talking on her cell phone. Realizing the phone can work this far underground, she purposely bumps into the Controller and steals her phone. She heads to the toilets and calls Marco, her current host's son. She tells him she needs him to attack the Yeerk Pool, so the Council will realize the last attack was a farce constructed by Visser Three. Reluctantly, Marco agrees, and then Edriss heads back to the trial. Garoff asks her to continue her story. Edriss says that after a year, the shipboard Kandrona was running out, so she contacted the Empire. When she told them she had found a Class Five species, they dropped all charges against her. During this time, she had created a group called The Sharing, a boy scouts/girl scouts style club crossed with a cult, which was used to recruit voluntary Controllers. She sent a tape of the first human-Controller to the Yeerk Empire. When Edriss told Essam they were returning to the Yeerk Empire, he got angry, and tied Edriss up, forcing her to infest another host and taking off with Allison Kim and the children. Edriss takes after him, telling the Council that her intention was to kill him. At this point, Visser Three interrupts, saying that the real reason Edriss went after him was to get the children back. Edriss claims she didn't care about the children. In response, Visser Three brings one of her children, Darwin, in. Visser Three demands Edriss to kill him, to prove she doesn't care about him. Edriss stalls, unable to kill the kid, and suddenly the Animorphs attack. They knock out Edriss and take her outside to a part of the Yeerk Pool that is hidden by one of the Chee's holograms. Marco demands Edriss leave his mother's body, and she does. For a while she lies alone in the darkness, thinking the Animorphs will kill her, until she is suddenly put back into Eva's head. Looking for her memories, she sees that Eva convinced Marco to keep Edriss alive, because Edriss was the only one pushing for a slow infiltration, which is the only way the Animorphs can win. At that point, they knock her unconscious again, to make her capture look authentic. Eventually she is found unconscious, and is taken back to the trial. Garoff asks her to continue her story. Edriss talks about how she found Essam at a hospital. He was dying from Kandrona starvation, and eventually he died within Hildy Gervais's head, causing part of Essam's body to become fused with Hildy's brain. Hildy started screaming about the aliens that had infested him, and was taken away to an asylum. Allison escaped, but soon returned for the children in disguise. Edriss killed her. The children were left in the hospital, and eventually adopted. She then killed Lore David Altman, the host she used to create the Sharing, infested Eva, and eventually left Earth to become Visser One. Garoff says that she has given enough information, and the Council retired to consider their verdict. After a while they returned, minus two Council members who did not agree with the verdict, and say that Visser One and Visser Three have both been sentenced to death by Kandrona starvation. However, the sentences were suspended, and both of them would be free of all charges if they completed the tasks the Council of Thirteen set for them. Visser Three has to complete the invasion of Earth. Visser One had to take another planet, the Anati homeworld. If either of them fail, they will be killed; however, both Visser One and Visser Three are released from custody, meaning Edriss (and Marco's mother) survive. As she is about to leave, Visser One considers telling Visser Three the truth about the "Andalite bandits", but decides against it. ===== As a child, the Prince of the Great Kingdom was sent away by the power-hungry wizard Garth, to be raised by peasants. This turns out to be Garth's greatest mistake as one of the peasants is a retired hero who trains the Prince to be a master fighter using magic as a weapon. In the years after Garth's conquest, the kingdom had fallen into ruin and despair, with no hope of returning to the times of happiness and prosperity. Garth ruled with an iron fist and terrorized the population with undead creatures. The prince battles through badlands, castles, dungeons, caves, forests and finally to the Great Kingdom itself, with Garth's army of undead creatures attacking at every turn. After a confrontation between the Prince and Garth and after killing the evil wizard, the prince's destiny is fulfilled, having freed the kingdom from the Dark Ages of fear and tyranny. The prince assumes his rightful place as the peaceful King and Leader of the Kingdom. The Great Kingdom is once again free to prosper and grow without fear. ===== Hypnotist/magician "The Great Vorelli" (Bryant Haliday) and his dummy Hugo perform before a packed audience in London. The audience observes tension between the ventriloquist and his dummy. American reporter Mark English (William Sylvester) becomes fascinated with Vorelli, and solicits his girlfriend Marianne Horn (Yvonne Romain) to go with him to another show. From the beginning, the film drops strong hints that Hugo is actually alive and mobile. At the following show, Vorelli asks a member of his audience onto the stage. When no one volunteers, English encourages Marianne to go up. Vorelli succeeds in hypnotizing her and making her dance the Twist with an uncredited Ray Landor, an "expert in modern dance". Marianne is left partially hypnotized by Vorelli, who recognizes her as a wealthy heiress. English, wanting to do a story on Vorelli and his unique powers, gets Marianne to invite Vorelli to her aunt's charity ball. Vorelli has already decided to go to the ball, having read about it in the newspaper and seeing it as an opportunity to seduce Marianne. The night of the ball, Vorelli stays at the mansion of Marianne's aunt, where he seduces her after using his power to subdue her will. In the meantime, Hugo miraculously appears in English's room and asks him for help. Hugo repeats "1948" and "Berlin" before disappearing. The next day, English begins an investigation into Vorelli's past. Meanwhile, Marianne falls into a semi-coma that the doctors cannot alleviate. In one lucid moment, she tells English that, "He keeps calling me" and, "Make him stop". Through a colleague, English discovers that Vorelli had once been a disgraced medical doctor who dabbled in Eastern magic. The colleague traces Vorelli to Berlin and guides English to a former female assistant of Vorelli's who lives there. She tells English that another assistant, "Hugo", had worked for Vorelli in 1947, and would be hypnotized into a state where he could not feel pain as part of their act. The female assistant says that she would catch the two in strange conferences. One night, Vorelli killed Hugo on stage and simultaneously transferred his soul into the dummy. Vorelli was cleared in the death, and no one believed the female assistant's story. Vorelli's current assistant, who is also his lover, becomes jealous of his relationship with Marianne. Vorelli either manipulates or taunts Hugo into murdering his lover/assistant when Vorelli is visiting with stage crew elsewhere. Vorelli then hires a new, younger assistant whom he also puts under his physical and sexual control. During English's trip to Berlin, Vorelli visits the still-hypnotized Marianne in her home and tells her to announce that she is going to marry him. Vorelli confides to Hugo that he plans to marry Marianne in Spain and transfer her spirit into a companion doll for Hugo before letting her body die. Hugo escapes from his cage, smashes the face of the female doll intended for Marianne, and attacks Vorelli. Vorelli seemingly succeeds in wrestling the irate Hugo back into his cage just as English enters the room. "Vorelli" speaks in Hugo's voice and tells English that Hugo has now transferred his soul into Vorelli's body and vice versa. From Hugo's former body, Vorelli begs for help from English, who does not respond as the film ends. ===== The Lone Power, suspecting that a new threat is rising to its dark abilities, creates a surge of Dark Matter, called "the Pullulus", to eclipse the universe. Because of the way that the Pullulus affects the universe's structure, the Senior Wizards lose their wizardry and only wizards before adulthood are still able to fight. Ponch uses his tracking abilities to lead Nita, Kit, Ronan, and the wizardly tourists from Wizard's Holiday Filif and Sker'ret across the galaxy to try to find and activate an instrumentality that they are told is the only way to stop the Lone Power. Dairine and Roshaun take a trip back to the Motherboard from High Wizardry to consult the mobiles before joining the others. They find out that the 'weapon' is actually the Hesper, a version of the Lone Power who never fell. The group finds the world the Hesper is on. Unfortunately, the world is one that is 'lost', or devoted to everything the Lone Power represents. Despite this, Nita, Kit, and the others go down to the planet and start searching for the Hesper, after adopting disguises. With Ponch's help, they find the Hesper, and Nita starts teaching her concepts about 'self' and 'choice', concepts that she had no previous understanding of. Nita ask the Hesper to make a choice to fight the Lone Power, but before she can choose, they are captured by the Lone Power, who suppresses all wizardry in the area roughly analogous to cutting a Jedi off from the Force. Ronan sacrifices himself to free the One's Champion, who resides inside him, to give the Hesper a final chance to make her choice. The Champion holds the Lone Power back and restores wizardry to the area, allowing the Hesper to become embodied. As the Hesper assumes her position, the Lone Power is defeated, and the wizards are free to go, as Ronan is near death and the Pullulus is advancing towards Earth and Filif's home. The wizards head back to Earth, except for Filif, who returns to his planet to fight the Pullulus there. They arrive on the moon and find a gathering of all Earth's remaining active wizards, working on a spell to stop the Pullulus. The group joins in to gives energy to the spell, which at first seems to work in pushing the Pullulus back, but then fails due to a lack of power. As the Pullulus comes closer, Roshaun uses his ability to work with stars to directly channel some of the sun's matter to burn the Pullulus, which works for a period until the power drain becomes too great for a single wizard. While the remaining wizards prepare to make one last stand to destroy the Pullulus, Kit tells Ponch to take Carmela and Kit and Nita's parents away from Earth. Ponch starts to obey, but is caught between doing what he is told and staying with his master and friend. He decides to do neither, he completes the canine Choice, which had been held in abeyance because of the long-ago dogs' loyalty to their human partners. The Pullulus takes on a wolf-like shape and Ponch becomes a canine incarnation of the One. The wolf of darkness clashes against the hound of starlight, and it is the wolf that is beaten. Because Ponch has incarnated as a Power, much like the Hesper, he can no longer be with Kit. As he leaves Kit, however, Ponch says that some things will still stay the same. As Nita, Kit, Dairine, and the others pick themselves up, they realize that the Pullulus is gone, and they head home with Ronan healed and without Roshaun or Ponch. The book ends with school starting again, Dairine resolving to discover what had really happened to Roshaun, and Kit finding Ponch in a "stray" sheepdog that had just shown up on his street. ===== In Norco, California, four men plot a bank robbery using heavy weapons to intimidate the public and the police force. However, one employee activates the silent alarm in the police station, and the criminals are chased by the police and L.A. SWAT. In despair, in Lytle Creek, the robbers fire about 2,000 rounds, kill one policeman, hit eight others, and damage many cars and one helicopter. In the end, the one survivor was sentenced to life without parole. ===== The novel is set in the land of Gwynedd, one of the fictional Eleven Kingdoms. Gwynedd itself is a medieval kingdom similar to the British Isles of the 10th century, with a powerful Holy Church (based on the Roman Catholic Church), and a feudal government ruled by a hereditary monarchy. The population of Gwynedd includes normal humans and Deryni, a race of people with inherent psychic and magical abilities. The novel begins six months after the conclusion of Camber of Culdi and is set around King Cinhil Haldane's efforts and those of his allies to secure the kingdom following the successful coup that overthrew the Deryni tyrant, King Imre Furstán-Festil. The former-priest-turned-king struggles with his conscience and his new responsibilities while Earl Camber MacRorie and his family engage in a dangerous and desperate plan to protect king and realm. ===== Set in the aftermath of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, the book chronicles the investigations of Carl Landry, a reporter for the Boston Globe. As the story unfolds, Carl attempts to uncover the events leading up to the war, while at the same time running from those who would have the truth buried. The story begins in 1972, ten years after a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviets, which was precipitated by the Cuban Missile Crisis. Washington, D.C., New York, Omaha, San Diego, Miami, and other U.S. cities, principally those surrounding military bases, have either been destroyed, damaged, or rendered uninhabitable by Soviet nuclear attacks. Philadelphia is now the capital of the United States, and although the Mexican-born President George W. Romney is nominally in office, the U.S. is effectively under martial law. The Soviets have been utterly devastated by U.S. nuclear strikes. Cuba is an atomic ruin, with Spain responsible for relief efforts aiding what is left of the island's population. One consequence of the war is that America's embroilment in Vietnam is abruptly curtailed. U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam (and indeed across the world) are withdrawn in order to stabilise the US in the aftermath of the Soviet missile and air strikes. The People's Republic of China has also collapsed, with numerous regional warlords waging a civil war against each other. U.S. nuclear strikes on the Soviets led to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, and also to the release of a massive fallout cloud over much of Asia, killing further millions after the destruction of the Soviets. As a consequence, the U.S. has become a pariah in the eyes of much of the world. Many governments regard members of the U.S. Air Force as war criminals, and its servicemen are advised not to travel abroad. After the 1962 war, nearly all the remaining countries of the globe have renounced possession of nuclear weapons. The United States alone retains an atomic arsenal. Western Europe survived the war largely unscathed. NATO collapsed almost as soon as hostilities commenced, and France and a reunited Germany now preside over the continent. The United Kingdom remains an ally of the U.S., and actually assists in post-war reconstruction efforts in U.S. states hit hardest by the war. The British, in the period after 1962, has managed to regain much of its pre-1939 colonial confidence in the vacuum left by the destruction of the Soviets and the emasculation of the U.S. in world affairs. The policy of decolonialisation has been halted and even reversed; some newly independent nations even return to the remaining British "Empire" in the new, uncertain world created after the "Cuban War". While British aid is welcome, there is also a sense of resentment in the U.S. over excessive dependence on the British. The presence of British and Canadian military personnel in the U.S. is also a source of contention, with some Americans wondering whether their allies possess ulterior motives. The story covers two parallel plotlines. The first involves Landry's attempts to discover what happened in Washington, D.C. in October 1962. U.S. military propaganda accounts maintain that the Cuban war broke out because of John F. Kennedy's recklessness and incompetence; these claims are generally believed. Kennedy and his officials are regarded as butchers and war criminals and the only senior surviving member of JFK's inner circle, McGeorge Bundy, is imprisoned in Fort Leavenworth. In contrast, U.S. military commanders (notably the Chief of the Air Force, General Curtis LeMay) are portrayed as the saviors of the nation. During the course of the novel Landry gradually discovers that it was Kennedy who sought to prevent the crisis over Cuba from escalating into war, and that last-minute attempts to achieve a deal with Nikita Khrushchev to end the crisis were deliberately sabotaged by LeMay and other generals. The second plotline concerns British-U.S. relations. Landry and a British journalist, Sandy Price, discover that elements within the British government and security services are plotting a military takeover (or anschluss) of the U.S. This plan is underway near the end of the novel, and is called off at the last minute. ===== In 1948, Rev. Desmond Spellacy is a young and ambitious Roman Catholic monsignor in the Los Angeles archdiocese. His older brother Tom is a hard-working homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. They are fond of each other, but spend little time together. Des is the pride and joy of aging Cardinal Danaher because of his skill at developing church projects while keeping down costs. He cuts a corner now and then, overlooking the shady side of construction mogul Jack Amsterdam, a lay Catholic who uses his ties to the Monsignor for the congregation's benefit but mainly for his own. One day in Los Angeles, a young woman is found brutally murdered, her body cut in two in a vacant lot. Tom Spellacy and his partner, Frank Crotty, are put in charge of the case. The woman, Lois Fazenda, is labeled "the Virgin Tramp" by the local press for apparently being a Catholic as well as a prostitute, turning it into a sensational case. Tom Spellacy's investigation leads him to a local madam, Brenda Samuels. Tom was well acquainted with Brenda years earlier while working as a bagman for Amsterdam, whose corruption extends to the local prostitution ring. Brenda has called the police to report the death of a Catholic priest while he was engaging the services of one of her girls. While there, Brenda reproaches Tom for doing nothing for her while she was sent to prison for running one of Jack's whorehouses. Tom later believes the dead girl appeared in a stag film and obtains a copy. He and Frank notice that one of the girls in the movie was present at Brenda's brothel on the day they came to retrieve the philandering priest. Tom now wants Brenda's help in tracking down the girl who made the movie with the murdered girl. Frank spots the girl a few days later being taken into the jail entrance after a roundup. They learn that the dead girl was a favorite of a local porno movie director named Standard because of her tattoo. Tom learns that Standard did his filming in a deserted army post in the foothills outside Los Angeles. At lunch with his brother, Tom provokes Amsterdam with secret facts about Amsterdam's dark side, which makes the Monsignor increasingly uncomfortable. Des tells the Cardinal the time has come to cut church ties with Amsterdam for good. Des discusses "getting rid of Jack" with his cronies who remind him that such a thing would not be easily done. Sonny, a corrupt local city council member and local mortician, proposes that they give Jack a salutation dinner. Tom Spellacy's anger builds as his brother organizes a Catholic "layman of the year" banquet for Amsterdam as a gesture of appreciation before ending the church's relationship with him. Tom walks up to Amsterdam at the banquet and pulls off his sash while asking him loudly: "Were you wearing this when you were banging Lois Fazenda?" Jack attacks Tom and they scream obscenities at each other. Tom goes to Standard's "studio" and finds the floor and a bathtub covered with dried blood. He also finds Chinese food, which the medical examiner doing the autopsy had found in her stomach. Tom and Frank go looking for Standard but learn that he had been killed in a car accident twelve hours after the murder. Tom wants to drag in Amsterdam for questioning simply to humiliate him in public but Frank talks him out of it. Tom starts digging around and discovers that the dead girl had been messing around with several community leaders. Amsterdam's lawyer, Dan Campion, subtly warns the Monsignor that his brother the cop had better lay off unless they want it revealed publicly that Des, too, knew the murdered girl. She met the Monsignor only once in passing, whereas she had a sexual relationship with both Amsterdam and the lawyer. But the simple fact that Des had any kind of involvement in such a lurid case could permanently stain his reputation with the church. Tom Spellacy won't be talked out of it. His determination becomes complete when Brenda is found dead, an apparent suicide. He decides to have Amsterdam picked up and taken to headquarters, which in turn leads to the Monsignor being treated the same way. His rising career curtailed, Des asks to be relocated to a remote parish in the desert, the same place to which his mentor in the diocese had been exiled, the location where the movie begins and ends, where Des and Tom meet after years apart. By the time Tom comes to see him, Des is dying. Tom feels everything is his fault, but Des is at peace and absolves his brother of any and all blame. ===== After the suicide of her best friend, wheelchair-bound heiress Penny Appleby (Susan Strasberg) arrives at her estranged father's estate on the French Riviera. Her stepmother (Ann Todd), whom Penny has only just met, informs her that the father has been called away on business. She cannot say when he will return or why he left when he was expecting Penny's arrival. Although the stepmother has made the place comfortable for Penny, the young woman does not trust her. That night she believes she sees her father's corpse in the guest cottage. When others respond to her hysterical screams, the corpse is not there. The stepmother tries to convince Penny that her recent tragedy is causing her to hallucinate, and the family doctor (Christopher Lee) cites Penny's history of neurotic behaviour to support that view. The family chauffeur (Ronald Lewis) meets Penny privately to say he believes Penny did see something unusual, even if not a corpse. He offers to help her investigate. As they proceed, Penny begins to wonder if he is really an ally or if he is leading her away from the truth. When a police detective begins his own investigation, he suspects that Penny may have secrets of her own. ===== The book begins with Tally, the main protagonist, as a Pretty debating what to wear to a bash. While attending the bash at which she is to be voted into the "Crims" clique, she is followed by someone who appears to be a "Special", a member of Special Circumstances. She soon finds him and discovers it’s Croy, a Smokey she knew before she turned pretty. He then told her that he left a note for Tally somewhere in Valentino Mansion.Then he went back to The Smoke and Tally tried to follow him by pushing Peris off the balcony where the bungee bounced, and kneed her head hard enough to make her bleed and was voted into the Crims by the bubbly movement. Tally returns to her care-free life as a Pretty. Her peace is disrupted when Zane, who is the leader of the Crims, asks her about David, whom she loved while she lived in the Smoke. Zane and Tally kiss and fall in love. Zane had once known Croy and had been determined to escape to the Smoke before his surgery. He regrets that he didn't go into the wilderness then. Zane is eager to accompany Tally to find the object Croy has hidden for her. They face strenuous, dangerous physical challenges in order to locate the item, which is accompanied by a letter from Tally to herself, written before she went under the knife. The letter explained to her future self why she had become a Pretty – to take two pills that will cure her from the foggy-headed life of a Pretty. Tally was afraid to take the pills alone so she and Zane split it right before Special Circumstances came and gave them cuffs like interface rings, but they can't come off. After taking the pills Zane starts getting bad headaches, but he seems to be more cured than Tally. Then one day the Crims pull a bubbly trick by using alcohol to melt a hovering ice rink and crash a soccer game, causing the clique to become famous. Later that night at the bonfire, Shay and Tally get into a huge fight causing Shay to turn on Tally. After that Dr. Cable offers Tally a job as a Special, which she immediately turns down. When Tally and Zane go to Uglyville they find Sussy and Dex, two uglies who helped Tally and David back when she was a Smokey. Tally takes Zane to the hospital but soon finds out that Shay has started a clique with Crim rejects called Cutters, where they cut themselves to cure the lesions. Zane and Tally soon get to decide to escape the city with a few other Crims. Fausto helps Zane and Tally get the cuff off, and they soon escape the city by hoverboarding out of a hot-air balloon. Tally's hoverboard broke so she had to walk on foot to find Zane. Peris, Tally's friend from her Ugly days, decides in the balloon that he does not want to go to the New Smoke. He stalls for Tally, and she falls into a reservation with rather primitive people who seem to be very violent. She is considered a god there because of her beauty. There she meets Andrew Simpson Smith, the village holy man, who is the only one who speaks her language, which they call the language of the gods, with significant fluency. Andrew tries to help her reach the Rusty Ruins, though he says that they are beyond the end of the world. Through their travels, Tally comes to deduce that the villagers are living in a forcefield-protected reservation where Specials and Pretty Scientists conduct experiments about violence and ways to reduce mankind's violent nature. During this time, Tally starts to wonder if Dr. Cable's words to her have some truth - perhaps the Pretty operation that clouds everyone's minds is the only way that humans can live in peace, without destroying each other or the planet. Tally steals a hovercar from the visiting scientists to escape to the Rusty Ruins. When she calls, she sees someone coming down on a hover board and is shocked to find that it is David who has come to take her to the New Smoke. When she arrives, Maddy tells her that the pills she and Zane took separately were meant to be taken together. One of the pills contained the nanos that were supposed to eat away the lesions, but they ate more of Zane’s brain tissue than the lesions because they needed the pill that Tally took to stop them. Tally, in fact, cured herself, since the pill that she took only stopped nanos; it did not contain nanos itself to heal the lesions. They soon discover that, when Zane went to the hospital for his headaches, a tracker chip was put in his tooth. Tally decides to stay with Zane instead of escaping with David. David believes that she only loves Zane because he is a Pretty. To make David leave and not get caught himself, Tally tells him to "get his ugly face out of here". It has the desired result and he flees. She stays with Zane which leads to her getting caught by the Specials along with Fausto. She discovers Shay has been turned into a Special. The book ends with Shay saying 'face it Tally-wa, you're special.. ===== The Uglies series is set at least three centuries in the future, after current civilization was destroyed by a bacterium which de-established all petroleum products, causing widespread chaos. The survivors of this disaster established cities much smaller than those currently existing, each of which is independently governed with limited traveling. At the age of sixteen, each person undergoes an operation which boosts their immune system and reflexes while giving them well-proportioned, symmetrical faces based on an international standard, so that all pretties look nearly identical. They are also given brain lesions which make them peaceful and compliant. Before they receive the operation, children are referred to as "uglies", and are kept separate from their older friends. Later operations follow to show signs of increasing age while maintaining their beauty, and the lesions may be removed for pretties entering careers which require quick thinking. Pretties who work for Special Circumstances, a clique which ensures the city's security, are given an operation to make them look terrifying, become very strong and fast, and have incredibly fast reflexes. Specials also receive brain surgery to make them feel superior to others and have heightened feelings of rage and euphoria. ===== Phyllis Saroka (Rhea Perlman) is a P.E. teacher at a school in New York City, who reads a flyer at her school that Sunset Park High School is looking for a new boys basketball coach. Looking for more money to pursue opening a restaurant on St. Croix, Virgin Islands, she decides to give the job a shot despite knowing nothing of basketball. She contacts the correct people and is given the job. She shows up for her first day on the job and the team is already skeptical of her. When she walks in, one player is heard saying "I know we gon' lose every game." She then lets the players run the team, calling their own fouls, running their own plays, and basically allowing them to be carefree. During a game, she makes some bad decisions which irks some of the players on the team. This inspires her to learn more about the game with the assistance of her players. They help her and the team begins to slowly find success. The team also has to deal with outside forces that threaten the team. Tyrik "Shorty Doo-Wop" Russell (Fredro Starr) is on probation and eventually gets into more trouble. Spaceman (Terrence Howard) is also on probation, is constantly using drugs, and has trouble with a teacher. Busy-bee (De'aundre Bonds) is shot during the season and misses several games. Several other players are having academic trouble and some don't even get along with each other. The team members also find out that the coach only plans to stay with them one season and then leave to open a restaurant. The team eventually comes together despite their differences and troubles. They end up with very successful season, and get into the city championship. They go to Madison Square Garden to face their opponent and lose by a small margin. Afterward, the coach informs them that they should be proud of themselves and that she will return next season. ===== The Love Machine tells the story of ruthless, haunted Robin Stone and his life and career in the cut-throat world of 1960s network television. Handsome but promiscuous, the latter earning his nickname the Love Machine after he describes television with the same sobriquet, Robin is loved beyond all reason by three women: Amanda, the beautiful but doomed fashion model; Maggie, the beautiful but headstrong fellow journalist escaping a cruel society marriage; and Judith, the beautiful but aging wife of fourth-network founder Gregory Austin. As Robin rises and falls (both in and out of his bedroom), many people cross his path. They include Christie Lane, the vulgar but vulnerable comic/singer who becomes an unlikely TV variety star with an equally unlikely family-friendly image; Ethel Evans, the homely but athletic "celebrity fucker" who lusts for Robin but can't have him; Danton Miller, the dapper, desperate network executive who fears Robin and the exposure of his own private life; Austin, powerful and daring, but vulnerable in his own way; Sergio, the loving but pragmatic companion to Robin's mother, the beautiful but ailing Kitty; Lisa, Robin's suspicious sister; Ike Ryan, a producer who befriends but is befuddled by Robin; Dip Nelson, an actor-turned-producer whose loyalty to Robin is sorely tested; Alfie Knight, a too-clever-by-half actor and scene maker; Cliff Davies, a network lawyer who mistrusts Robin and has his own agenda; and various prostitutes---with one of whom an unexpected encounter forces Robin to face his past and, in time, his future---fading actors, psychotherapists, and the like. ===== The film begins with Donald Duck, flush with the contemporary patriotic spirit present with the United States' full entry into World War II, dancing to a patriotic song. A radio announcer tells about the new patriotic spirit and asks Donald if he is willing to do his part. Donald fervently asserts his loyalty and begs to know how best to show it. His enthusiasm fades when the radio announcer advises he pay his income tax promptly. However, the announcer changes Donald's mind by stressing the country's need for resources to aid the war effort. Now that Donald is motivated once again, the announcer, along with the help of a talking dip pen, inkwell, blotter, and note pad, show Donald how to properly fill out his simplified Form 1040 A.Donald files as Head of family as he is single and able to claim Huey, Dewey, and Louie as dependants, making his payment of $13 authentic according to the tax bracket. Donald has often been associated with the number 13, a reference to his often predictable bad luck. This is also seen in his fictional address of 1313 Hollywood Boulevard given on the form as well as his bank and check number. After this the announcer urges Donald to mail his payment to the Federal government at once, and Donald enthusiastically races across the nation to Washington, D.C. to deliver it in person. The film concludes with a montage of images to illustrate to the audience the wartime necessities the money is needed for such as munitions and combat vehicles to defeat the Axis powers. With a final images framed in a sky lined with red, white and blue, the announcer repeats The Four Freedoms and reminds the audience that taxes are essential for victory and will keep democracy on the march. ===== The Hollow tells the story of Ian Cranston, a high school teen who has just found out he is the descendant of Ichabod Crane. With the help of his girlfriend Karen, a local bully named Brody, and the old cemetery caretaker Claus Van Ripper, Ian now must stop the newly resurrected Headless Horseman. ===== The film opens with three teenage boys pulling up to the house of Ruben Borchardt (Peter Coyote) early on Easter Sunday in 1994. They break into Ruben's house armed with a shotgun, intending to kill Ruben on the promise of payment. Gathering at the top of the basement steps where Ruben sleeps, the boys draw their shotgun and shoot Mr. Borchardt as he makes his way up the stairs. Having carried out their deed, the three boys flee the scene. ===== After a short live action performance by the Royal Samoans, Bimbo appears on screen playing a ukulele while riding in a motorboat. The motorboat goes faster and faster, until it crashes into a tropical island. Bimbo flies into the air and lands in another boat with a topless (except for a strategically placed lei) and dark-skinned Betty Boop in it. Bimbo and Betty, after nearly falling down a waterfall, are flung from the boat into a clearing surrounded by hostile trees, who torment the two. A group of Samoans appear, but Bimbo disguises himself by painting his face and sticking a bone in his hair, a form of blackface. Bimbo is treated as an honored guest, and Betty dances the hula. A sudden rainstorm washes off Bimbo's disguise, and he and Betty are chased by the Samoans until they reach Betty's canoe and take off down the river. When it seems that they are alone, the two proceed to kiss in private behind an umbrella (with a convenient hole). ===== The platoon is energised by the arrival of a Tommy Gun, or 'Chicago piano' as an excited Pike prefers to call it. While the men combatively discuss who is to have first turn of it, Godfrey reveals he has a problem. In the office, assisted by Jones, he reveals the truth. More than forty years before, as a 'dandy young buck' he had become involved with a friend, a young woman working as a servant in a nearby Great Hall. At first Mainwaring is naturally baffled as to the relevance of all this, but it turns out she had later married a farmer, and was now a widow, her fields needed harvesting (100 acres of wheat). Mainwaring, inspired by a burst of patriotic fervour, decides to harness the platoon to help with the harvest. They quickly drive out to the farm to offer their assistance. Meanwhile, Warden Hodges has had a life changing experience, having narrowly survived a bombing raid. He reveals that the German bomb had knocked the pint glass out of his hand, but not exploded. He attributes this to some form of higher destiny, and is now resolved to love his enemies, though "not Hitler of course", and having sought guidance from the Vicar, he decides to assist Captain Mainwaring in his work. Corporal Jones is acquainted with the machinery, and demonstrates it to the rest of them as best he can. Walker and Wilson appear more interested in three land girls. With an uncharacteristic unity the wardens and home guard work together, in the process they manage to overcome a number of problems and incidents, including Jones falling into the hopper and losing his trousers. After finally completing the job, they are delighted with their work. After consuming large amounts of potato wine in celebration, the platoon head outside for the Vicar to bless the harvest. The drink has turned them belligerent, and it descends into a mass brawl. ===== During a typical day at Swallows Bank, Mainwaring complains about Pike's unprofessional talk with customers and insists that Wilson and Pike continue to use the door to enter his office (despite the fact that bombs have destroyed most of the building and the door is pretty much the only part of the wall left intact). Jones comes in to deposit £500 that has been raised by the local shopkeepers for the servicemen's canteen (Jones is the treasurer) and faints in shock when it turns out he accidentally brought a packet of sausages instead. Jones becomes obsessed with finding the money, annoying the rest of the platoon as they stay up all night to help him remember. Frazer offers to hypnotise Jones (which causes the Verger to think Frazer is practising satanism) and, under hypnosis, Jones remembers that he may have put the money in a chicken instead of giblets. The platoon rush to the house of Mr Blewitt, who bought the chicken, and demand to inspect it, much to the old man's confusion (Jones asks Mainwaring not to mention the lost money to keep Jones' good name untarnished). Unfortunately, a very confusing search is unsuccessful. Back at the bank the next day, Jones decides to pay the amount out of his own money, despite the fact that this will bankrupt him. Just then, however, Mr Billings comes into the bank to reveal that Jones gave him the money instead of the sausages the previous day by mistake, leaving the matter happily resolved (although Mainwaring will have to explain the 'mysterious' disappearance of the sausages, which he ate himself). ===== The episode opens with a General briefing two others in the War Office building in 1941: the General briefs the others about a weapon called the High Explosive Attack Device Propelled by Ultra High Frequency (HEADPUHF) and the test called "Operation Catherine Wheel". Several local Home Guard units will be roped in to help during the test and the smarmy Captain Stewart tells them he will get the Walmington-On-Sea brigade to do the dirty work. When Captain Stewart arrives in Walmington-on-Sea to recruit the platoon, Captain Mainwaring misinterprets his hesitancy in describing what exactly they are required for to mean 'special duties' - Stewart allows him to believe this to get his co- operation. Mainwaring debriefs the platoon down in the church crypt to maintain secrecy, but ARP Warden Hodges barges in. Deciding they cannot trust him to keep quiet, they take him with them to the base where the test is taking place - Hodges is highly amused when it turns out that their 'special duties' include peeling potatoes. Private Pike gets bored and sneaks out back to Jones' van with Private Walker. It's revealed that Pike has built a kit radio and brought it along, so they try to tune in to the popular programme Hi Gang! Unknown to them, the signals from the radio interfere with the control signals for the secret weapon - a giant rocket-propelled wheel - and make it go berserk. It rolls out of the base and the Walmington-on-Sea platoon find themselves having to pursue it - if they don't stop it, it will explode and the town will be destroyed. The chase is a shambles, with the wheel repeatedly chasing the platoon's van and even appearing to ambush them - then they run out of petrol. When Walker suggests they could use Pike's radio to lure the wheel, Mainwaring is infuriated about Pike's secret radio, but they follow Walker's plan, with Mainwaring, Hodges and Pike taking off on a commandeered motorcycle. Knowing the only way to stop the wheel is to knock out its antennae, Lance-Corporal Jones suggests they head to a nearby railway bridge. As Pike and Mainwaring lure the wheel under the bridge, Jones is lowered down and manages to cut the antennae off with a pair of shears. The platoon gather around the fallen weapon as Jones reports "Mr. Mainwaring... I've killed it" and hang their heads in respect. ===== The episode opens with Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson enjoying a relaxing morning coffee at the Marigold Tea Rooms when Pike bursts in announcing a Luftwaffe pilot has bailed out and landed on the roof of the town hall. Gathering together the rest of the platoon, they head straight for the town hall. When they arrive they find the ARP and Warden Hodges marshalling a large crowd of spectators, watching the stranded German on the clock tower. Mainwaring brusquely pushes Hodges aside and takes over command of the situation himself. He leads some of his men up a ladder to the tower, to try to rescue the German. After a number of failed attempts to rescue him, they eventually manage to reach the German using a pole found by Corporal Jones. Unfortunately the pole had been holding up the ladders up to the tower, which collapse, leaving them stranded. While Mainwaring puts the German pilot under close arrest, he and the rest of the men try to find a way to get back down. Meanwhile on the ground level, a sneering Hodges mocks their predicament, enraged because it was he who had erected the ladders in the first place. The platoon suggests various ideas of getting down. Fraser tells a story of two lighthouse keepers who were trapped in a lighthouse and decided to get out by dismantling it as they had gone mad from the isolation. Wilson tells a story his nanny told him: a Prince rescued a beautiful Princess trapped in a tower by firing an arrow into the tower; attached to the arrow was a piece of thread, attached to the thread was a piece of twine and attached to that was a rope which the Princess used to escape. Walker suggests using a rope in the tower to get down, Mainwaring claims he already noticed the rope and was waiting to see if anybody else would. When the men try to free the rope, they accidentally start up the clock tower. After Jones gets caught up in (and rescued from) the clock automatons, and several of the men's finest hats are ruined to silence the large bell in order to avoid a false invasion alert, an arrow loosed by the Vicar strikes the tower - a note wrapped around it states that there is a piece of thread attached to the arrow; attached to the thread is a piece of twine and attached to the twine is a piece of rope, just like in the fairytale Wilson's nanny told him. ===== Betty, an attractive California girl, takes a coming-of-age sojourn, embarking from San Francisco on an Italian freighter bound for ports in El Salvador, Panama, Venezuela, Spain and Italy. Among several other passengers, including, to her dismay, Ted, an old boyfriend who infuriates her by introducing himself as her "fiancé", a notion of which she immediately disabuses both him and her fellow passengers. Betty develops an attraction for and engages in a mild flirtation with Mik Finsch, an older, mysterious man-of- the-world, but when she accepts an offer of drinks in his cabin, his amorous advances get way out of line and Betty find herself hard put to fend him off. Ted bursts into Finsch's cabin and the two start fighting; by the time the captain breaks them up, Ted has thrashed Finsch, who claims he was "just warming up". Betty tells Ted she could have handled the situation herself and she still has no interest in marrying him and wished he had not come. Another passenger tells Betty that Finsch's pride has been wounded and he will get revenge on Ted somehow. That night, Ted goes missing and a typewritten suicide note is found. There are suspicions, but no proof. When another "suicide" involving Finsch and the wife of a shipping agent leaves no doubt in Betty's mind that Finsch is a murderer, the two are pitted against one another, with Finsch seemingly holding all the cards. Category:1985 American novels Category:Novels by Jack Vance Category:American mystery novels ===== It begins with a brief biography of Bruce Lee, and shows scenes from four of his childhood films, Bad Boy, Orphan Sam, Kid Cheung, and The Carnival, each sepia-toned and given a fully new soundtrack with dubbed English dialogue and a disco soundtrack such as an instrumental version of Devil's Gun by C. J. & Company. Next, there is a three-minute highlight reel of Lee imitator Bruce Li. Finally, there is a feature-length Korean martial arts film starring an imitator Dragon Lee as Lee Xiao Long in 최후의 정무문, Choihui Jeongmumun (lit. "Last Fist of Fury"). The plot of the film is a spin-off to Fist of Fury (1972), Japan has invaded China, and started putting to shame the glorious past of the House of the Dragon Kung-Fu school. Now, they even killed one of the pupils in an uneven match. Lee Xiao Long, also a school fighter, decides to risk his own life in taking revenge on the foreign oppressors. ===== Porky is looking all over the big city for a hotel room, but due to a convention there are no vacancies. Porky takes the only available vacancy at one hotel, but will have to share with Daffy Duck, who is a very loud, obnoxious and annoying sort. Daffy introduces his invisible kangaroo friend "Hymie" (a reference to Harvey), but Porky denies the kangaroo's existence despite evidence from Daffy getting inside Hymie's 'pouch', becoming partially invisible, and Hymie jumping around with Daffy riding in it. Daffy spends the rest of the night annoying Porky: pestering him with questions, shaking the bed, spilling water from a glass, hogging the blanket and finally literally sending the both of them flying off the bed when Daffy kicks, and startles, Porky with his literally frozen feet. Fed up with his antics, Porky stuffs Daffy in a pillow case and drops him out of the window. As Porky goes back to sleep, Daffy returns bandaged, but shakes the bandages off and prepares to get revenge. Daffy tricks the half-asleep pig into stepping out of a window thinking he's boarding a train. Daffy pulls down the blind saying it's "too gruesome" to watch. Suddenly he hears train noises, and behind the shade, sees the still-drowsy Porky pulling away on an actual train and waving goodbye at Daffy. Daffy finds this silly, saying that he should've bought Porky some magazines to read on his trip. Then he bounces all around the room, "Hoo-Hoo!"-ing wildly. ===== Blood and Guts in High School, while having a frequently disrupted and heavily surreal narrative, is the story of Janey Smith, a ten-year-old American girl living in Mérida, Mexico, who departs to the US to live on her own. She has an incestuous sexual relationship with her father, whom she treats as "boyfriend, brother, sister, money, amusement, and father." They live together in Mexico until another woman begins to interest Janey's father, leading Janey to realize he hates her because she limits him by dominating his life, and he wants to have his own life. Her father agrees to let her go and puts her into a school in New York City. For a period of time her father sends her money, but later she begins to work at a hippie bakery and is appalled by the customers, whose behavior gradually spirals out of control. She ends up having many sexual partners. She ends up pregnant twice and has two abortions; she seems to be furiously addicted to sex and does not care whom she sleeps with. In New York City she joins a gang, the Scorpions. One day, while the gang is driving frantically in a stolen car from the police, they are involved in a car crash: Janey is the only one who survives. Afterwards, she begins to live in the New York slums. Two thieves break into her apartment, kidnap her, and sell her into prostitution. She becomes the property of a Persian slave trader who keeps her locked up, trying to turn her out as a prostitute. We see Janey's dreams and visions, and read her journal entries and poems as the lines between reality and fiction begin to become blurred. Shortly before the kidnapper is to release her to become a prostitute for him, she discovers she has cancer. The slave trader lets her go and she illegally goes to Tangier, Morocco. There she meets Jean Genet, the iconic French writer, and they develop a relationship while Janey vulgarly and intensely discusses but later becomes attracted to President Jimmy Carter. Janey and Genet travel through North Africa and stop in Alexandria. Genet treats Janey badly and thinks little of her, but the worse he treats her the more she loves him. He decides to leave her. Janey gets arrested for stealing Genet's property, and shortly afterwards, by her luck, he joins her in prison. A rebellion breaks out as the narrative continues to deteriorate while particular figures, collectively named the Capitalists, meet to discuss how their society is collapsing. As it peaks, Janey and Genet are both thrown out of Alexandria. After travelling together across North Africa for some time, Genet gives Janey some money and leaves. However, soon after they part company, Janey dies suddenly, leaving time to pass endlessly as the narrative breaks into a final set of dream maps; here, the novel concludes. ===== Although based on the New Testament story, the film does not follow the Biblical text and is highly fictionalized, critically passing the blame of John the Baptist's death wholly upon her mother. In Galilee, during the rule of Rome's Tiberius Caesar (Cedric Hardwicke), King Herod (Charles Laughton) and Queen Herodias (Judith Anderson) sit on the throne and are condemned by a prophet known as John the Baptist (Alan Badel). Herodias resents John's denunciation of her marriage to the king, her former husband's brother, for which John labels her an adulteress. The king is not pleased with the Baptist condemning his rule, but fears he will face the same fate his father, the elder Herod, suffered after ordering the murder of firstborn males when Jesus was born. The prophecy states that if a king of Judea kills the Messiah, he will suffer an agonizing death. The king believes John the Baptist is the Messiah because of the mistaken belief of some peasants. After Marcellus, nephew of Caesar, petitions his uncle to marry Salome, he receives a message stating that he is forbidden to marry a "barbarian." Salome is also sent a message stating that she is banished from Rome for seeking to rise above her station, and will be escorted back to Galilee, despite having lived in Rome since childhood. When Marcellus does nothing to protest Caesar's decree, she declares that she shall never love another Roman. On the boat escorting her home, Salome meets Claudius, a Roman soldier assigned to the palace of Herod. He is amused by her haughty behavior and thwarts her attempt to order him around when she demands to use drinking water instead of sea water for her bath aboard the ship. When he brings sea water instead, she slaps him. He interrupts her angry tirade by stealing a long kiss, which shocks her. Queen Herodias greets her daughter warmly when she arrives at the palace, and becomes aware of the lecherous intentions of the king, who marvels at the beauty of his stepdaughter/niece. The queen sends Salome away and consults with her advisor, who agrees that the queen can use the king's desire for Salome for her own benefit. Meanwhile, Salome sneaks into the marketplace with several servants to hear John the Baptist speak. When he calls her mother an adulteress, she repudiates him, inadvertently revealing her identity. She is then is spared from the angry crowd by John the Baptist, who calms them and denounces violence. Salome returns to the palace, upset by what she has heard. She implores her mother to leave Galilee with her for her safety, but Herodias claims that she is trapped in a loveless and potentially deadly marriage to the king because she wishes to preserve the throne for Salome's sake. Although Salome does not care about the throne, Herodias insists on its importance, and exaggerates her fear of being stoned to death by John the Baptist's followers. Knowing of Claudius's feelings for her, Salome seductively beguiles him in an attempt to have him arrest John the Baptist to spare her mother's potential death as an adulteress. When he refuses her request, she exits the room in anger. Shortly after, the king decides to arrest John the Baptist, ostensibly for treason but in reality to protect him from the actions of his wife, who has attempted to have him assassinated. The trial ends with the king imprisoning John the Baptist. Salome hears that the prophet has been arrested; she thinks that Claudius did it for her, and apologizes to him for her behavior the night before. After she leaves, Claudius rushes to the king to plead for John the Baptist's release, but is unable to persuade him. He then rushes off to Jerusalem on horseback to seek his release. The king visits Salome, who bids Claudius farewell from the balcony, and is irritated that she pays him attention. Herod attempts to gift her a necklace, and suggests she "find pleasure in the moment." Knowing the implications of his gift, she rejects it, reminding him that his queen is her mother. Claudius meets with Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem, who refuses to release the Baptist because he preaches against Rome, which is treasonous. He dismisses the Baptist as a threat, and tells Claudius there are many such prophets in the land, mentioning a miracle worker in Jerusalem. Claudius confesses he is a follower of the Baptist and the religion he preaches, and attempts to persuade Pilate to join him as a champion of this new religion. Pilate relieves him from his post and forbids Claudius from returning to Galilee, but does not arrest him because of their friendship. Exiting their meeting, Claudius learns of where the miracle worker is located, and travels to see him. He then returns to the palace, where Salome runs to greet him with a tearful embrace. During his departure, Herodias has manipulated Salome into thinking that the only way she can save her mother's life is by dancing for the king. Salome is appalled by this suggestion, as it would mean surrendering her will and body to Herod, and becoming his possession. She pleads with Claudius to take her from Galilee, but he tells her that he needs to reveal something to her before they can leave. He then leads Salome to John the Baptist's cell, where she discovers he is a Christian convert. Claudius tells them both of the miracle worker, whom John recognizes as his kinsman, the Messiah. John's faith and words move Salome, who resolves to save his life. Claudius and Salome both rush off to try to put their plans to save John into action. Claudius clashes with the palace guards in an attempt to free John from his cell. Against Claudius's wishes, who knows what happens to those who dance for the king, Salome dances a wild, enchanting dance in which she removes layers of clothing, which she knows will please Herod. At the end of her dance she will ask him to set John free. Herod, enthralled by her dance, offhandedly muses that he would give half his kingdom for Salome. Seated beside him, Herodias quickly seizes the chance to ask him to order John's death, and John is beheaded before Salome finishes her dance. Horrified, she renounces her mother Herodias, who planned and ordered the execution, and like Claudius, becomes a Christian convert. The last scene shows Salome and Claudius listening to Christ (whose face is not shown) delivering the Sermon on the Mount. ===== Ian Dormouse is a vagabond who lives off free food from bars. He accidentally ends up doing a hokey stage show where he tells a dream, and coincidentally, the dream ends up being one from an audience member. Two strippers let him live with them in a hostel, and with a steady job whereupon he tells people about their dreams, he manages to obtain some money. One day, Ian wakes up to witness a futuristic version of reality. It is then revealed that Ian Dormouse was a shifty vagrant who sleepwalked through life but he has since converted to become the Dream King, the most enigmatic mystic in Moscow's underground Burlesque scene. Furthermore, strange and evil men begin to follow him while he attempts to escape them. ===== ===== ===== The two twins, Jacek and Placek, start out as cruel and lazy boys whose main interest is eating, eating anything, including chalk and a sponge in school. One day they have the idea of stealing the Moon; after all, it is made of gold. : "If we steal the moon, we would not have to work" : "But we do not work now, either..." : "But then we would not have to work at all". After a few small adventures, they manage to steal the Moon. Immediately a gang of robbers notices the little thieves and captures them. The two regain their freedom, and one of the twins devises a plan to enter the "City of Gold". The plan works, but when the robbers try to collect the gold, they turn into gold themselves. The twins escape and then run home and promise to help their parents with their work as farmers. An animated version of the film was also produced in 1984, with virtually the same plot. The musical track from the 1984 animated film includes music by the popular Polish rock group Lady Pank. The film has been compared to the Beatles' involvement in Yellow Submarine, as they were both designed to boost said groups' popularity. ===== The film follows the adventures of the writer-adventurer Jack London (Michael O'Shea) who was, among other things, oyster pirate, hobo, sailor, prospector and war correspondent. ===== The story begins 1 year after the end of the previous novel (#9, Tarzan and the Golden Lion) which would place it around 1936 which would make Tarzan around 47 years old. His son Korak, now at about 23 has a verbal child, the grandchild of Tarzan. Tarzan, the king of the jungle, enters an isolated country called Minuni, inhabited by a people four times smaller than himself, the Minunians, who live in magnificent city-states which frequently wage war against each other. Tarzan befriends the king, Adendrohahkis, and the prince, Komodoflorensal, of one such city-state, called Trohanadalmakus, and joins them in war against the onslaught of the army of Veltopismakus, their warlike neighbours. He is captured on the battle-ground and taken prisoner by the Veltopismakusians, whose scientist Zoanthrohago conducts an experiment reducing him to the size of a Minunian, and the ape-man is imprisoned and enslaved among other Trohanadalmakusian prisoners of war. He meets, though, Komodoflorensal in the dungeons of Veltopismakus, and together they are able to make a daring escape. Spanish actor/Tarzan lookalike Esteban Miranda, who had been imprisoned in the village of Obebe, the cannibal, at the end of the previous novel, Tarzan and the Golden Lion, also appears in this adventure. ===== Deeply religious April Epner, a 39-year-old Brooklyn elementary school teacher, finds her life derailed by a series of events over which she has no control. Her husband Ben abruptly leaves her, her abrasive adoptive mother Trudy passes away the following day, and shortly after she is contacted by Alan, a representative of Bernice Graves, the flamboyant host of a local talk show, who introduces herself as her biological mother. Although intrigued by Bernice's claim that she was fathered by Steve McQueen, April initially resists her efforts to forge a relationship. At the same time, she finds herself attracted to Frank, the divorced father of one of her students, as the two get to know each other via lengthy telephone conversations. For their first date he escorts her to a party at Bernice's apartment. Complications arise when April discovers she is pregnant, the result of a quick and clumsy coupling with Ben on the kitchen floor just before he left her. April has longed to have a child all her life and is delighted with the news, but is confused and upset by Ben's sudden return, Frank's hasty departure (when he discovers April and Ben had a "quickie" after visiting the gynecologist), and Bernice's insistent attempts to create a bond between them. Not helping the situation is the discovery Bernice voluntarily put her up for adoption a full year after her birth and not three days later at the urging of her parents, according to the scenario she initially presented. When April miscarries, her brother Freddy tries to counsel her, but ultimately she must rely on her deep-rooted faith to deal with the betrayals she has suffered not only at the hands of those she trusted but by the God she worships as well. Eventually she offers reconciliation and forgiveness to Bernice, if Bernice will agree to "buy" a baby for her. Bernice agrees, and then Frank forgives April when she goes to him to apologize for her behavior. Later, the ending shows that April could not have the baby which Bernice paid for, so she adopted another child. ===== After a brief introduction to the principal characters, the film follows Asterix as he encounters a group of Roman legionaries in the forest. Despite being significantly outnumbered, Asterix leaves the Romans beaten and bruised for daring to interrupt his wild boar hunt. Their state upon their return to camp prompts the leader Phonus Balonus to seek the secret behind the Gauls' seemingly superhuman strength. Phonus selects a volunteer (by means of a single round of musical chairs) to pose as a Gaul in order to infiltrate the village; the unlucky loser is a short, slack-tongued misfit named Caligula Minus. He is dressed in a wig, false moustache and traditional Gaulish dress and led in chains through the forest as a prisoner, awaiting rescue by the Gauls. Sure enough, Asterix and Obelix free Minus and believe his flimsy cover story that he is a Gaul from Belgium. Once inside the Gaulish village, Minus goads Asterix into sharing the secret of the magic potion with him; he goes on to use the same tactic against Getafix in order to try the potion for himself. Before he has a chance to steal some of the potion to take back to the Roman camp, Minus' cover is accidentally blown during a traditional dance; Asterix pulls off Minus' moustache. Still empowered by the magic potion, Minus makes good his escape, with the Gauls powerless to stop him. Minus is debriefed by Phonus Balonus, who on learning of the magic potion orders his legionaries to capture Getafix and bring him back to the camp. Getafix is later ambushed by the Romans while he is out collecting mistletoe, but refuses to divulge any of the secrets of the magic potion to Phonus. When Getafix fails to return to the village, Asterix goes into the forest to look for him where he encounters a slow-witted merchant with a dilemma over his oxen. After benefiting from Asterix's common sense the merchant agrees to take him to the Roman camp on his cart, hidden in a pile of hay until nightfall. Having infiltrated the camp, Asterix hears Phonus plotting with a Decurion to overthrow Caesar. Asterix locates Getafix and forms a plan to free him. He seemingly surrenders and convinces the Romans that he and Getafix will co-operate at the prospect of being tortured; Getafix is then escorted by legionnaires as he collects the required ingredients for the potion in the forest. Unable to locate strawberries (since they are not in season), Getafix orders the Romans to search far and wide for them. When an exhausted legionnaire returns with a basket of them from Greece, the Gauls proceed to eat them all and request that some more be obtained. This drives Phonus to despair; Getafix quickly relents and prepares the potion without strawberries. Believing that the potion Getafix has made is the same as that which gives the Gauls their strength, the Romans drink it and discover, much to their dismay, that it is in fact a hair- growing formula. The entire legion is soon at the mercy of Getafix as their hair and beards grow out of control, rendering them practically helpless. Getafix claims that he can reverse the effects of the first potion by making another, knowing that effects will wear off the next day; with the Romans distracted he collects the ingredients for the real magic potion, which he makes just for Asterix, and an antidote, which causes hair-growing formula to stop working. Just as the pair begin to overpower their captors, Phonus receives a surprise visit from Julius Caesar who – dismayed by the state in which he finds the camp – asks to meet the Gauls. Asterix reveals that Phonus planned to use the potion to overthrow Caesar, who relieves Phonus of his duties and awards Asterix and Getafix their freedom, though he tells them that they will meet again. ===== Involved from early childhood in the theatre, the Athenian-born Nikeratos grows into a successful actor through his performances in tragedies. During his formative period, he meets the philosopher Plato and Dion, a respected politician from Syracuse and brother-in-law to the city's tyrannical ruler Dionysios the Elder. Nikeratos frequents Plato's Academy and grows to appreciate his wisdom, though he also discerns that Plato and Dion are somewhat more idealistic than practical in their views on humanity and government. Nikeratos sails for Syracuse as a member of a theatre troupe, but upon arrival receives the news that Dionysios, their patron, has just died. Nikeratos chooses to remain in Syracuse despite the dangerous political climate, and meets and makes a favourable impression upon the city's new ruler, Dionysios the Younger. While Dionysios is not the brutal tyrant his father was, he is dissolute and politically inept, and Dion invites Plato to serve as a teacher to Dionysios; the two hope to mould him into a philosopher- king ruling according to Platonic ideals. While Dionysios wants Plato's approval, he makes only half-hearted efforts to reform either his own luxurious lifestyle or the Syracusan government. Part of this is due to his own nature, but other factors also inhibit reform, such as Syracuse's large and oppressive mercenary force, who are necessary to counter Carthaginian aggression, and the Syracusan people themselves, who have become politically enfeebled under Dionysios the Elder's long rule. Dion is eventually exiled due to the machinations of his rival Philistos, a loyal but corrupt supporter of Dionysios. During these years Nikeratos enjoys a prosperous and successful career acting in Syracuse and mainland Greece. He becomes a lifelong friend and mentor to a promising young actor named Thettalos while keeping informed about events in Syracuse and Plato's life there. After Dionysios confiscates Dion's estates and gives his wife to another man, Dion returns with an army and captures most of Syracuse while Dionysios' loyalists hold out in the island citadel of Ortygia. In the ensuing fighting Syracuse is brutally ravaged before Dion gains the upper hand. Philistos is killed by the vengeful citizenry and Dionysios flees to live out his remaining years in exile. Dion is initially welcomed as a liberator by the Syracusans, but his attempts at reform prove unpopular and he is eventually assassinated. He is succeeded by Callippus, an ambitious and unscrupulous pupil of Plato. In the novel's final chapter, a dozen years after Dion's downfall, Nikeratos encounters the young Alexander the Great and wistfully regrets that Plato never had the chance to tutor Alexander, who might have pursued Plato's social ideals with far greater success than Dionysios the Younger did. ===== Axel Heyst, the novel's protagonist, was raised by his widowed father, a Swedish philosopher, in London, England, and never knew his mother. The atmosphere of Heyst's home, with his father's ruthless pursuit of truth and pessimistic view of humanity, warps Heyst's mind, and after his father dies, he leaves England and becomes a rootless wanderer. This eventually leads him to the Southeastern Asia, especially to what is now Indonesia, including Surabaya—a port in the then- Dutch colony of Java. Eventually, however, human feelings are awoken in Heyst by the plight of Captain Morrison, who faces the confiscation of his ship, and loss of his livelihood, because he cannot pay a fine levied by the Portuguese authorities. Heyst intervenes with a loan for a paltry sum, which establishes a relationship, and Heyst is unable to break this bond. This eventually leads to the establishment of The Tropical Belt Coal Company, of which Heyst becomes the manager, although he has no interest in this enterprise. Morrison subsequently visits England where he dies. Soon after the coal company goes bankrupt. Heyst however, remains at the site of the derelict coal mine, on the island of Samburan. There he lives the life of a hermit, with his Chinese servant, Wang. Later Heyst's compassion is aroused again when he encounters the young woman Lena in Sourabaya on the Island of Java, where she is playing in an all-woman orchestra. Lena is being mistreated by the orchestra's conductor and his sadistic wife, and threatened with sexual violence by Schomberg, the owner of the hotel, where the orchestra plays. Heyst, with the aid of Schomberg's down-trodden wife, absconds with Lena, to Samburan. Schomberg's jealous rage at losing Lena, along with his fear of a mysterious trio of visitors, Mr Jones, Martin Ricardo, and Pedro, lead him to suggest to this trio that Heyst caused the death of Morrison, and has great wealth hidden on Samburan. Taken in by Schomberg's lies, the trio set out for Samburan, but get lost at sea and barely make it to the island. They plan to kill Heyst after they discover where his money is hidden. Only Ricardo is aware of Lena's existence and Jones has a pathological hatred of women. Soon after they arrive, Martin Ricardo attacks Lena, but she is stronger than him, causing Ricardo to fall in love with her. In order to try and protect Heyst, Lena encourages this infatuation. This eventually leads to her accidental death, when Jones realizes that Ricardo is double-crossing him and attempts to kill Ricardo. In despair, Heyst commits suicide. Jones kills Ricardo and then drowns after being shot by Wang. ===== Pudgy misanthropic boy genius Grady Jacobs wins a scholarship to participate in rainforest research and conservation. Upon discovering that our Grady is only thirteen, Dr. Carter, the scientist in charge, relegates him to the position of camp drudge. A healthier diet and menial labor transforms Grady both physically and emotionally, making him a better and more balanced boy. During the course of his duties, Grady somehow discovers a way to communicate with trees. This fantastic power eventually comes in handy when it is discovered that Dr. Carter's project would in fact lead to the destruction of the rainforest. ===== Julius Chancer, young assistant to the historical researcher Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey, becomes embroiled in an adventure to discover the lost Rainbow Orchid, largely due to the machinations of scheming Daily News reporter William Pickle. He is accompanied by silent film actress Lily Lawrence, her American agent Nathaniel Crumpole, and Tayaut, a French stunt-pilot. The search for the orchid is opposed by the devious Evelyn Crow, right hand associate to scheming businessman Urkaz Grope. The adventure leads them up the Indus Valley and into Chitral, where they encounter the Kalash people, before heading further into the Hindu Kush. Eventually, they find themselves within a lost world, which may hide the secret of a forgotten super-weapon. ===== The story opens with the narrator in a frenzy about an apparent tragedy that has just befallen his household. His wife has apparently died, as he makes repeated references to her being laid out on a table, presumably lifeless. The narrator proceeds to make an attempt to relate the story to the reader in an effort to make sense of the situation. The narrator is the owner of a pawnshop, and one of his repeated customers was a young girl of sixteen who always pawns items to earn money to advertise as a governess in the newspaper. The narrator could see that she was in a dire financial situation, and he often gave her much more for her pawned items than they were reasonably worth. The narrator slowly develops an interest in the girl. The narrator investigates the girl's background, and finds that she is at the mercy of two greedy aunts. The aunts were arranging her marriage to a fat shopkeeper who previously beat both of his ex-wives to death. Once the shopkeeper proposed marriage to the girl, the narrator countered with his own proposal. The girl decides, after some deliberation, to marry the narrator. The narrator's marriage started out nicely, but his miserly and reserved ways are taxing to his young wife. A dearth of communication and disagreements about how the pawnshop should be run eventually result in arguments, though the narrator insists that they never quarreled. The narrator's wife begins to make a habit of leaving during the day, and eventually it is discovered that she is visiting Efimovich, a member of the narrator's former regiment. The narrator's wife eventually confronts the narrator with the details that she learned from Efimovich: details about the narrator's shameful departure from his regiment. The narrator is unfazed, at least externally, and his wife continues her visits to Efimovich. One time, the narrator follows his wife to Efimovich, bringing a revolver. He listens in delight to a verbal duel between his wife and Efimovich, at whom she laughs; and eventually he bursts in and reclaims his wife. The narrator and his wife return home. They retire for the night separately. In the morning, the narrator opens his eyes to see that his wife is standing over him with the revolver pointed at his temple. He simply closes his eyes again, and he is convinced that he conquered her with his readiness to accept death. She does not shoot, and the narrator buys her a separate bed that day. That same day, she becomes ill. The narrator spares no expense for his wife's medical care, and she slowly recovers. Throughout the entire winter the narrator watches his wife furtively, and a watershed moment happens when she begins to sing in his presence. The narrator kisses his wife's feet and promises to be a changed man. He recounts the story of his shame in the regiment, and he promises to take her to Boulogne-sur-Mer. Several days later, the narrator leaves the house to make arrangements for passports. When the narrator returns home, he is met with a crowd of people outside his house. His wife has committed suicide: she has jumped out of the window while holding an icon. The narrator is convinced that he was only five minutes too late, even though it was ultimately his narcissistic love that drove his gentle wife to suicide. ===== The Space Cruiser E-89, crewed by Captain Paul Ross, Lt. Ted Mason and Lt. Mike Carter, is on a mission to analyze new worlds and discover if they are suitable for colonization. While orbiting a planet, Mason sees a metallic glint in the landscape. He conjectures that this might be a sign of alien life, but the pragmatic Captain Ross disagrees. Nevertheless, the Cruiser prepares to land next to the mysterious object. After landing, the men find that the gleaming comes from the wreck of a ship exactly like their own. Inside the craft, they discover their own lifeless bodies. Mason and Carter go numb with shock. Ross, struggling for an explanation, decides they have bent time in such a way as to get a glimpse of the future. He says to avoid their fate they must refrain from taking off again. Mason and Carter fiercely object to this plan, especially once they find that atmospheric interference prevents their contacting anyone for help, and that the frigid nighttime temperatures of the planet will force them to rapidly exhaust the ship's energy reserves on heat. Ross pulls rank to make them comply. While looking out the viewport, Carter is transported back to a country lane on Earth. There he encounters people from his past. He runs to the house that he and his wife shared, and finds it empty except for a telegram notifying her that he has died in the line of duty. Carter is wrenched from his vision by Ross; as Carter describes what he has just experienced, he realizes that the people he encountered are dead. Ross insists it was a delusion. The two then find Mason has vanished. He is having an emotional reunion with his wife and child. When Ross pulls him back, Mason is enraged and wants to be allowed back, maintaining that his encounter with his family was real. From Mason's pocket, Ross pulls a newspaper clipping about the death of Mason's wife and child. The captain then posits a new theory about what is going on: The planet is inhabited by telepathic aliens who are using illusions to keep them from reporting back to Earth, thus averting colonization of their home. Ross says that if they take the E-89 back up to space, that should break the spell. The men take E-89 back in orbit. Mason and Carter admit that Ross may have been right about the aliens. Ross then insists on landing the craft again to gather foreign samples to bring back to Earth. When they land again, the wreck of their craft is still present. The successive disproving of Ross's theories, combined with an intuitive knowledge of their condition, brings Mason and Carter to the realization that they already crashed and are dead. Their afterlife visits were real, and it is their current situation which is the illusion. Ross refuses to accept this. He rejects his crew's pleas to be allowed to embrace their deaths and be reunited with their loved ones, and says that they will "go over it again and again" until he figures out an alternative explanation. In compliance with Ross's order, the men are returned to the moment where Mason first spotted the E-89's wreckage, doomed to relive the past several hours of investigation over and over. ===== Gas station attendants Chuck Murray (Bud Abbott) and Ferdie Jones (Lou Costello) aspire to better jobs. Working as temp waiters at Chez Glamour, a high-class nightclub where Ted Lewis and The Andrews Sisters perform, Chuck and Ferdie cause a ruckus and are fired by the snooty maitre d' (Mischa Auer). Back at the service station, gangster "Moose" Mattson (William B. Davidson) brings his car in for gas. When he is spotted by the police, he speeds off with Chuck and Ferdie caught inside the vehicle. During the chase Matson trades shots with the police and is killed. According to the gangster's unconventional will, which states that whoever was with him when he died will inherit his estate, the boys inherit Mattson's rundown tavern, the Forrester's Club. Mattson had also given a cryptic clue about a hidden stash of money, stating that he "kept his money in his head," but its existence and location remain a mystery. Mattson's attorney introduces the boys to an associate, Charlie Smith. Chuck and Ferdie are unaware that Smith (Marc Lawrence) is a member of Moose's gang and seeks the money. Smith has arranged for a wildcat bus to take them to their rural property. But the unscrupulous bus driver abandons them and three unrelated passengers—a doctor (Richard Carlson), a radio actress (Joan Davis) and a waitress (Evelyn Ankers)--at the Forrester's Club during a heavy rainstorm. As the night progresses, strange things happen. Smith disappears while searching the basement, and his corpse turns up unexpectedly several times. The water in the tavern is undrinkable. Ferdie's bedroom is rigged to transform into a casino with hidden gambling equipment. The girls are scared by what appears to be a ghost. Two detectives show up but vanish soon after starting their investigation. While Ferdie examines a map to find the quickest route back to town, candles on the table move mysteriously and scare him. Ferdie inadvertently discovers Moose's treasure hidden inside the stuffed moose head over the fireplace. A disgruntled member of Moose's gang appears and demands the money at gunpoint. The boys manage to knock him out, but other gang members appear. Chuck and the doctor fight two of them off, while others chase Ferdie, who has the loot, through the building. Ferdie scares all the gangsters off by imitating the sound of a police siren. The doctor announces that the tavern's unsavory water has valuable therapeutic properties, and Ferdie and Chuck transform the place into a posh health resort. The boys hire Ted Lewis and The Andrews Sisters to headline, and the maitre d' who fired them from Chez Glamour turns up as a temp waiter. ===== Blackadder and Baldrick are discussing the latter's latest feeble cunning plan: namely, Baldrick carving his name on a bullet to get around the fact that "there's a bullet with [his] name on it". Lt. George enters and provides Blackadder with a copy of the propaganda magazine King and Country, which Blackadder uses for toilet paper, and a new service revolver. Blackadder deduces from these ominous signs that an advance against the Germans is imminent, one which they will probably not survive. Baldrick suggests that they take up cooking at HQ to get out of the assault but Blackadder shoots down the idea, knowing Baldrick is the worst cook in the world: his cream custard, for instance, is really just cat's vomit. Shortly afterwards, Blackadder is called to the office of General Melchett for a special mission: Field Marshal Haig's supreme tactical plan (where the men climb out of their trenches and walk slowly towards the enemy, a plan they've used 18 times before) is weakening the men's morale and he is in search of a way to raise their spirits. After Blackadder jokingly suggests Haig's resignation and suicide (which Melchett takes literally and notes down), he is told that they need new inspiring artwork for the front cover of King and Country. Blackadder is uninterested until he learns that the artist needs to leave the trenches for Paris, and attempts to paint a work of art by himself. He and Baldrick both fail, but when George reveals he can paint surprisingly well, Blackadder gets him to paint a picture of a British soldier (resembling Blackadder) standing next to the body of a dead nun in a ruined French village. When Melchett and Captain Darling arrive to inspect their work, Blackadder displays his own painting "War" in place of George's. The General rejects it; George tries to protest, but he and Baldrick are only to speak when given permission by Blackadder, which the Captain refuses to grant. The next painting, Baldrick's "My Family and Other Animals", shows vomit and is rejected by Melchett as well. Blackadder proceeds to take credit for George's painting, earning himself the position of war artist. Melchett then reveals that the King and Country cover story was just a ploy: instead of Paris, the chosen artist will in fact go into No-Man's Land and draw the enemy positions. With debatable help from George and Baldrick, he returns with a sketch illustrating immense but fictional enemy defensive capabilities, including a large number of elephants. Darling and Blackadder suggest that the push should be cancelled. Melchett responds by saying that would be exactly what the enemy would expect – and therefore what they won't do, in order to make the Germans think that the British Intelligence is rotten. Melchett orders the attack anyway, which Blackadder, George and Baldrick avoid by dressing up as Italian chefs and substituting themselves for Melchett's chef. After serving Baldrick's vile cuisine to Melchett and Darling, the three escape back to the trenches, where Blackadder asks Baldrick how he managed ”to get so much custard out of such a small cat”. ===== The book mostly follows the lives of Plumfield boys who were introduced in Little Men, particularly Tommy, Emil, Demi, Nat, Dan, and Professor Bhaer and Jo's sons Rob and Teddy, although the others make frequent appearances as well, and Josie and Bess, two cousins of Demi and Daisy. The book takes place ten years after Little Men. Dolly and George become college students dealing with the temptations of snobbery, arrogance, self-indulgence, and vanity. Tommy becomes a medical student to impress childhood sweetheart Nan, but after trying to win her favor by "accidentally" falling in love with and proposing to Dora, he finds he is happier with her and quits medicine to join his family's business. Rob and Ted fall into a scrape with Dan's dog that draws them closer in the end. Sections of Jo's Boys follow the travels of former students who have deep emotional ties to Plumfield and the Bhaers. Professor Bhaer's nephew Emil had become a sailor, encouraged by Mr. Bhaer, and works hard before being promoted and taking off on his first voyage as second mate, and gets a chance to shows his true strength when he is shipwrecked and the captain becomes badly injured, as he encourages and helps the sailors and the sick captain until they find refuge on a passing ship. Dan, after wandering as a sheep-herder in Australia and such, and still having the ever-present admiration of Teddy, he seeks his fortune in the West, but when Dan ends up committing the one sin he and Jo always feared he would, though it was in defense of both self and a younger boy, Blair, when he kills a man who cheats Blair in gambling, Dan is sentenced to a year in prison with hard labor, and resists a prison escape and perseveres. Josie ends up discovering her actress hero and eventually wins her support and becomes a great actress herself, while Bess remains the "Princess" throughout, showing an unhealthy passion in art, but encouraged by her father, leaves her clay more often for the sun. Nat begins a musical career in Europe that takes him away from Daisy, only to fall in with a frivolous crowd and unintentionally leads a young woman on, whom he then does not marry, but makes things right when he narrowly avoids debt and lives on the right path for the rest of his time there. At the end of Jo's Boys, both Franz and Emil find their own wives, and Nat and Daisy are engaged by the end of the book. Nan remains single as a professional doctor, dedicated to her medical career. Jo discovers Dan's fancy for Bess, though she is not entirely surprised at this. Dan tells her of this fancy and that Bess seemed like the bright northern star which guided him. However, knowing that Amy and Laurie would never approve, Jo makes sure that the Laurences are away when Dan leaves again. Sadly, Dan dies protecting the Indians but lies in peace as if he, Aslauga's Knight had done his duty. ===== Taro Yamada, or lives in the town of Corja in Japan with his mother, eccentric father and younger sister Alyssa; the family moved there after his father changed jobs. He received his Combat Armor by accident during their house-warming party, when he ordered pizza from 'Sensational Cafeteria' or SECA and instead received the suit. After realizing the suit gave him incredible strength and that he is required to pay for the armor, Taro decides to become a hero for hire, performing various heroic tasks and odd-jobs for the townspeople of Corja. ===== Blackadder is feeling bored, so George suggests a Charlie Chaplin film to cheer him up, but Blackadder declines, citing his hatred of Chaplin. Baldrick gets a newspaper saying the Russian Revolution has started. The Russians have pulled out of the war as a result of the revolution. George is initially delighted, until he's reminded the Russians were on their side, and Blackadder is dismayed, since it will mean 'three- quarters of a million Germans leaving the Russian Front and coming over here with the sole purpose of using my nipples for target practice!'. Blackadder decides to desert, but is stopped when General Melchett comes into the trench as he ironically needs Blackadder to help him shoot some deserters. Melchett, reminding Blackadder of the French army mutinies the previous year, and the recent Russian uprising, is determined to prevent the same thing happening in the British Army. To prevent an uprising, he asks Captain Blackadder to organise a cabaret to boost the men's morale, something that Blackadder eagerly accepts when a possible tour is mentioned (which would allow him to leave the trenches). Melchett also asks his driver, Corporal "Bob" Parkhurst, to aid Blackadder. Blackadder immediately notices that "Bob" is a girl in disguise, something of which Melchett remains entirely unaware; however, Bob persuades Blackadder not to give the game away. The show, which features Baldrick's Charlie Chaplin impression (featuring a dead slug called Graham as Baldrick's "moustache"), which Melchett thinks is a slug-balancer, and Lieutenant George's drag act, "Gorgeous Georgina", is a success on its first night, but unfortunately Melchett falls in love with "Georgina", takes her to the Regimental Ball, and proposes to her. Worst of all, George accepts because he thought he might have been court-martialled for disobeying a superior officer. Blackadder is called to Melchett's office and it is revealed the marriage is to take place on Saturday and the General wants him to be his best man. Consequently, he informs Melchett that there is something wrong with Georgina. At first Melchett is worried she may be Welsh, but Blackadder then informs him of Georgina's "death" from stepping on a cluster of landmines. At first, Melchett mourns deeply for his "perfect woman", but seconds later, he recovers by saying "Oh well. Can't be helped. Can't be helped". He then refuses to continue the show, citing that Georgina was the only good thing about it, but Blackadder says he has already found a new leading lady. These words place Blackadder in "the stickiest situation since Sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun." All of George's suggestions as to who to replace him as leading lady are rejected as being too short, too old or too dead. Baldrick offers to take up the role, but Blackadder quickly dismisses the idea (in truth, Baldrick's plan was to marry Melchett and be a Trojan Horse – or 'frozen horse' as he refers to it – to bring down the aristocracy). He then realises he has had a leading lady in his presence all the time and replaces George with Bob. In spite of Bob's more convincing and better received 'drag' act, and Baldrick's now seemingly "feeble impression of Buster Keaton", Melchett proclaims the second night's show a disaster, recognising Bob and still not realising she is a female, and immediately stops any possibility of a tour (and Blackadder leaving). He instead declares that with the arrival of the Americans into the war, morale will be boosted by endless showings of Charlie Chaplin films (with Blackadder as projectionist at a personal request from Chaplin himself which Darling reads out, much to his annoyance). Captain Darling revels in Melchett's displeasure with Blackadder, causing Blackadder to offer him a "liquorice allsort" (Baldrick's slug), which he accepts. ===== The year is 220X. Technology has advanced rapidly since the age of the internet, leading to the creation of new and more efficient modes of transportation, as well as the construction of futuristic cities, all linked together by three satellites orbiting the Earth—Pegasus, Leo, and Dragon. The satellites accomplish this by maintaining a network of EM waves around the planet's atmosphere, thereby powering the invisible EM Wave World. The human population carries portable devices called Transers to interface with the EM Wave World and other electronic devices. Problems caused by criminals and EM Wave Viruses manipulating the EM Wave World are commonly dealt with by the Satella Police. ===== Bert Harris works for a hotel as a bellboy. One day, he meets Anne Roberts, who signs up as a chambermaid. He takes a fancy to her and lets her in on his racket, conning people out of money. They arrange for married hotel guest A. Rupert Johnson Jr. to be caught in a compromising position with Anne and get $5000 to keep a (fake) policeman from taking him to jail. From there, they leave town and embark on ever grander crooked schemes. Anne falls in love with Bert, but he does not realize it until it is too late. By the time he proposes to her, she has transferred her affections to the respectable Joe Reynolds and marries him. Bert travels around Europe for a year. When he returns to the United States, he is no longer interested in crime. However, Anne tracks him down and asks him for $30,000. It turns out that Joe has embezzled that amount from his employer. Bert does not have that much, but he comes up with a plan. He gets Joe to give the keys to the office and the combination of the company safe. He will break into the safe and steal what is left. Everyone will assume that he also took the $30,000 in negotiable bonds. However, Joe double crosses him; he has the police waiting. Bert manages to speed away in his car, but is shot and captured. When Anne comes to see him in his cell, she informs him that she found out what Joe did. Bert persuades her not to reveal everything to the police, telling her it would not help him anyway. She vows to be waiting for him after he serves his sentence, cheering him up. ===== Introduction: At the beginning, we see the Road Runner (Boulevardius Burnupius) giving Wile E. a "come-on" to chase him, and the camera moves to Wile and freezes to show his Latin name, (Dogius Ignoramii). The chase continues until the coyote stops to read a sign in the road: "WARNING: The Surgeon General has determined that chasing Road Runners may be hazardous to your health." He dismisses this sign as cheesy and laughs at it, before the Road Runner pulls up behind him and beeps the coyote into another headache. Within the outcropping, Wile recovers and sees another sign posted at the very end of the outcropping: "It's not cool to laugh at the Surgeon General." 1\. Not deterred by this one bit, the coyote continues his dastardly plans: he leaves the Road Runner a free snack on the edge of a cliff while he sneaks up behind his enemy and tries to eat him. However, sensing the danger, the Road Runner extends his neck all the way around the screen and beeps in the back of the coyote. To explain this, he displays a sign that says "Road Runners are extremely flexible" and leaves the scene, while Wile E. falls back onto the cliff and is left looking like an accordion. 2\. In a similar scheme to one used in the previous cartoon, Wile now locks and loads an ACME Giant Mouse Trap and leaves it in the road for the Road Runner to trip. When the trap snaps, the coyote jumps out to capture his opponent, but meets a giant mouse who is rather displeased with getting his tail caught and returns the favor to Wile's tail. 3\. Still trying to make this gadget work, despite his failures with it, the coyote loads himself into a spring attached to a rock and lets go as the Road Runner passes. Voices of Spring plays on the music track as Wile E. ends up being carried across the plateau. Wile E. eventually moves into thin air, and soon catches on to the situation, gulps, and falls. As the spring unfurls through the air like a Slinky, the Road Runner ducks as the rock just misses him and dives all the way through the spring, ultimately landing on Wile, displaying a "HAVE MERCY" sign, just as he recovers from his massive fall. The coyote leaves this with his neck also coiled up like a Slinky. 4\. With these newer cartoons come more ludicrous products, such as ACME Instant Road, which Wile E. rolls out across an arch and down the straight slope in an effort to get the Road Runner to follow him, until he runs out of road and he is left staring at the ground. He can only display a sign that says "In heaven's name - what am I doing?" (seen in the previous cartoon as well, but in distinctly older style) before he is overtaken by gravity and displays a "BYE!" sign. 5\. Returning to conventional chasing and gags, the coyote tries to launch himself with a bow to chase the Road Runner, but the bow simply freezes without firing. He hangs in midair for a couple seconds before he realizes this, and attempts to fix it by playing dulcimer to the melody "Those Endearing Little Charms" on the bowstring, until it activates and Wile spears a cactus. However, this gives the coyote a new idea, displayed by a lightbulb changing from "IDEA" to "CACTUS" repeatedly. 6\. The ACME Trick-or-Treat Cactus Costume has arrived, and Wile puts it on, suffering rather discomfiting pain in the process. Finally, he gets it on and hops out into the road while the Road Runner is passing him. However, he fails to grab the Road Runner and wraps his arms around himself, causing massive pain due to the spines. After Wile escapes from the costume, he kicks its box into the desert. 7\. As the Road Runner pulls up to another outcropping and signals to the coyote, Wile attempts to see-saw his way over to his rival with a rock and board. However, when the rock lands on the other side, it causes the board to smash into the coyote, and the rock then lands on the thin edge of the board, resulting in it wedging the edge of the outcropping away. This falls to the earth, with Wile, the board, the rock, and two smaller rocks located next to the see-saw following it. As the board looms over the coyote, Wile heaves it into the air before a rock hits the ground, then the outcropping edge, followed by the coyote on the right and the other rock on the left. This causes the coyote to be thrown upwards and bump his head directly on the falling board before he drops on the right side of the outcropping edge and jumps the second rock onto himself, as the board wedges just to the right. 8\. Another rather ludicrous ACME product: ACME Lightning Bolts (with rubber gloves) - takes up the remainder of the cartoon. With the safety gloves, the coyote grabs a lightning bolt and successfully sizzles a practice saguaro. He throws a second one at the Road Runner, who stops and takes stock of the situation, and turns the other way as the electricity chases him. The bolt and bird chase all over the mountains until the lightning overtakes the Road Runner, who beeps at the lightning to get it to reverse. The chase returns all the way back the way it came until the Road Runner escapes to safety up a mountain slope, while the lightning continues on its normal course - back to its thrower! Wile E.'s eyes pop out and clash with each other in reaction before following the rest of him on the run from the lightning. The hapless coyote is repeatedly prodded with white-hot lightning across the landscape and towards the setting sun. ===== The first love story is about love getting a second chance. Dev (Sanjay Suri) is a widower, his wife Payal (Dipannita Sharma) dies soon after their honeymoon. He moves to Mumbai from Pune with his sister Rachna (Bhavna Pani). Here he meets Gauri (Sonali Kulkarni), who lives with her psychosomatically ill brother Gaurav (Rakesh Bapat). Though they fall in love, the shadow of Gaurav's illness is always between them. And then Rachna falls in love with Gaurav: The second love story. The third story is one of how love can be swallowed by ego, pride and insecurity. Vishal aka Krish (Madhavan) and Raksha (Namrata Shirodkar) are happily married. Both are aspiring singers and want to become stars. Though Krish is more ambitious than Raksha, it is Raksha who succeeds first and becomes a rage. Their marriage totters. The fourth love story is that of Hrithik (Jimmy Shergill) and Jojo (Hrishitaa Bhatt). Even though Hrithik is a multi-millionaire and both the families want them married, Jojo refuses to marry him until he gets a job and becomes independent of his father. ===== The series features a young boy named Jarek and his anthropomorphic tiger companion Koj. They encounter the swashbuckling pirate Serra, a fox thief named Rikk, his companion in crime Hawke, Brad the dragon, Tom a turtlish- wizard, and many other mysterious entities. The heroes strive to unravel the mystery behind Jarek's origin and escape the attentions of a mad boy-wizard named Malesur who is seemingly bent on Jarek's destruction. Jarek has a powerful genie at his control, who is limited to defending Jarek only. Jarek tends to throw himself between his friends and danger so the genie is forced into battle. The series features shadow-hopping ninja frogs as enemy cannon fodder. In fact, many of the citizens of this realm are anthropomorphic animals, though there are many others who are full-human, such as Hawke and Serra. About midway through, the series takes a break from Koj and Jarek to focus on Hawke and Rikk in an adventure in a levitating city which is held down by chains. The heroes band together to stop Malesur, the boy-wizard, once and for all. During the latter part of the series, Jarek suffers a severe injury, requiring him to wear an eyepatch for some time. ===== Speedy Gonzales, the fastest mouse in all Mexico, races against the Road Runner, the Texas road burner. During the race, Sylvester the Cat and Wile E. Coyote join forces in an attempt to catch their speedy nemeses, with predictable results. Often they mistakenly end up injuring each other in comical fashion. 1\. As the race starts, Wile E. chases after Road Runner, only to run into a cloud of dust and fall off the cliff. Sylvester tries the same thing, only to find Speedy on the other side of the cliff, before Road Runner scares him off the cliff. 2\. As the racers are coming, Wile E. and Sylvester catapult rocks to flatten them, but this backfires when the rocks crash into each other and land on Sylvester and Wile E. instead. 3\. The duo then places iron pellets under bird seed and leaves slices of cheese; while the racers eat, the two attach a grenade to a roller skate with a magnet, but only the magnet part of the roller skate leaves and when Wile E. checks it, the grenade blows up in his face. 4\. Wile E. rolls a flat rock to flatten the racers, but the rock does not move - it stays on the edge of the cliff. Wile E. attempts to make it drop, but it still does not move. Sylvester comes to help and they both jump up and down on it, then the rock finally drops the two of them off the cliff. 5\. The duo decide to blow up the bridge as the racers are coming, but as Wile E. is placing the dynamite it explodes. 6\. Finally, they use a rocket car to chase Speedy Gonzales and the Road Runner, but they zoom past them and finish first to win the race, however, nobody gets the trophy. They then fly into the air and the rocket car explodes into a firework as the end card fades in. They might have tied this year, but next year will be another story! ===== The story takes place in the mid-1930s, and details the fight between the United Airmen and their merciless foe "The Doom". The Doom and his men attack Pearl Harbor and invade and takeover Japan until being defeated by the United Airmen, leaving a power vacuum in the Pacific. In the story in DHP, set 2 month's later, Crash and his friend encounter air pirates using left over Doomsmen planes, while the Soviet Union takes advantage by taking over Japan. ===== The book starts with Travis McGee meeting Nina Gibson, sister of Mike Gibson, an old friend of McGee's. Travis described a story of being on leave while Mike stayed behind. When McGee returned, Mike Gibson was severely injured. McGee feels guilty that this happened to Mike when it should have happened to him and he helps Nina out of that guilt. Nina's fiancé, Howard Plummer, has died and with a fair amount of money. McGee plans to track this down and return it to Nina. The book runs fourteen chapters and does not mention the phrase, "Nightmare in Pink," although that phrase refers to McGee's experience on the hallucinatory drugs that he is given while inside a mental institution trying to foil the plot. ===== The Crystals have returned again after numerous defeats against humanity. The VCD immediately launches a new model of the Raiden fighter, the Fighting Thunder ME-02 Kai, to stop the Crystals from taking over the Earth. ===== Colonists from Earth set out for a distant planet, but during the voyage, a factional skirmish turns into an irrevocable grudge, to play out during the course of their colonisation. Rough settlements are soon constructed around the sterile salt environment, yet old tensions quickly develop into war between two of these settlements, the rigid military dictatorship of Senaar and the Als anarchy. The novel explores the motivations of their warfare, and the viewpoints of the two narrators illuminate a dreadful, entwined inevitability. In all aspects of theme, setting, character development and prose style, Salt is a very stark, austere composition. ===== In 1805 England, eligible bachelors are scarce on Quality Street. Twenty-year-old Phoebe Throssel (Hepburn) becomes very hopeful when one of the few, Dr. Valentine Brown (Tone), tells her he has something important to say to her that day. Both she and her older sister Susan believe he will propose. However, he informs her that he has enlisted in the army to fight in the Napoleonic Wars. Phoebe hides her devastation so well that Dr. Brown never suspects she is deeply in love with him. She gives up hope of ever marrying. By contrast, the Throssels' servant Patty, though she is a decade older and aware she is no beauty, is confident that she will get a man. For the next ten years, the Throssels run a school for young boys and girls. Then, with the wars over, Brown returns as a captain. When he comes to invite the sisters to a ball, he is taken aback by how much Phoebe's looks appear to have deteriorated. Hurt by this, Phoebe declines. To lift her spirits, Phoebe sheds her drab everyday clothes and dresses up in a beautiful gown. When Brown returns unexpectedly, Patty thinks quickly and identifies her as Phoebe's niece Livy. Taken in completely, Brown invites her to the ball. She accepts, planning to make him eventually fall in love with her, then when he proposes, reject him. At the ball, she is quickly surrounded by admirers, much to Brown's annoyance. In the days that follow, she flirts with all the men. Finally, at a picnic, Brown draws Livy away to a gazebo when it starts to rain. To her shock, instead of asking for her hand in marriage, he merely lectures her on her behavior and reveals that he is in love with Phoebe. The next day, the Throssels have to fend off their neighbors, the Willougbys, who suspect that Livy and Phoebe are one and the same, particularly elderly Mary Willoughby. When Brown comes calling, the Willoughbys mention their suspicions. He eventually corners Patty and gets the truth from her. With the help of the sergeant who first recruited him, he puts clothes around a large seat cushion and puts "Livy" in a carriage to return home, all in sight of the snooping neighbors. He tells the sergeant and Patty to get rid of the "niece" and not to return until much later. The couple are delighted to spend time together. Brown goes inside and embraces Phoebe. ===== The film opens at an 18th-century ball, where Baron Hieronymus von Münchhausen is propositioned by a young woman who is engaged to another man. He graciously rejects her advance, and as she leaves, she asks him to turn on the light. The camera follows his hand to a modern light switch, and the young woman drives off in an automobile. The next day, the Baron, out of his costume and in modern dress, regales the young woman and her fiancé with stories of the famous Baron Münchhausen, to whom his guests think he is distantly related. He begins in his home town of Bodenwerder, back from an adventure with his trusted servant Christian Kuchenreutter, who has invented a gun that can shoot accurately at a distance of 100 miles. The sorcerer Cagliostro visits, and asks the Baron to join him in a quest to take over the throne of Poland. The Baron declines, explaining that he has no interest in power, just in adventure. In St. Petersburg, the Baron joins the court of Catherine the Great. She offers to appoint him to be her general aide-de-camp and install him in a room below hers, with a secret elevator between the two so that they can carry on their affair. He agrees to stay until one of them wants more freedom. While in her court, the Baron clashes with Prince Potemkin. The pair fight a "cuckoo duel" in a darkened room, where one party is obliged to call "cuckoo" while the other aims and fires a pistol at the sound of his opponent's voice. The Baron is wounded in the duel and he goes to Cagliostro, who has recently arrived in St. Petersburg, to tend to the wound. While there, the Baron warns Cagliostro of his impending arrest. After healing the Baron, Cagliostro asks him what he desires most of all, since money and power do not interest him. The Baron answers that he wishes to be as young as he is at that moment, for as long as he desires. Cagliostro grants his wish. On the Turkish front, Potemkin lights a cannon while the Baron sits astride it. The Baron rides the cannonball over to the Turkish palace, where he is enslaved along with an Italian princess. After two months as a slave, the Baron is reunited with Kuchenreutter and his runner, Der Läufer, who can cover hundreds of miles in a matter of minutes. He makes a wager for his and the princess's freedom with the king, wherein his runner must retrieve some Tokay wine from Vienna within an hour. After winning the bet, the king tries to pass off a counterfeit princess on the Baron. Incensed, he slips on a ring that makes him invisible and absconds with the princess. The pair escape to Venice, where her brother is offended by her dalliance with the Baron. He challenges the Baron to a duel with rapiers. The Baron humiliates the brother, leaving him suicidal. The Baron and Kuchenreutter escape in a hot air balloon, which takes them to the Moon. On the Moon, they marvel at how time moves so swiftly: while Münchhausen does not change at all, Kuchenreutter ages rapidly. They meet two inhabitants of the Moon, one of whom moves about as a disembodied head. She explains to the Baron how no Earthlings can last more than a day on the Moon before they dry up in smoke and blow away. However, before the Baron can leave the Moon, Kuchenreutter has a heart attack and dies in his arms, disappearing in a puff of smoke. As the Baron finishes his tale, his guests correct him on some of its historical inaccuracies, citing the fact that the real Baron died before some of the events took place. This prompts the Baron to confess that he is in fact the same man as the legend, and that he has been married happily to his wife for 40 years. Unnerved by his admission, the guests quickly leave. The Baron's wife begs him to flee, as he usually does when his escapades get out of control, upset that he has confessed the truth. The Baron refuses to go, and instead, he revokes Cagliostro's gift. He immediately ages to match the advanced years of his wife. ===== The film follows a man, who has an intellectual or mental disorder, living alone on a farm in rural Belgium. He demonstrates bizarre behavior from the beginning, such as fastening doll's heads to pigeons, collecting his feces in glass jars and beheading a hen for his own amusement. He is also obsessed with a sow who lives on the farm. We see him gleefully rolling around in the manure with the sow, and then he rapes her, which his behavior suggests he sees as an intimate and mutually agreeable act. Later, the sow gives birth to a litter of piglets. The man attempts to spoon-feed milk to the piglets, but the piglets prefer to drink directly from the milk bowl. In general, the piglets prefer their mother's company, repeatedly scorning the man's advances. Taking this rejection as an unforgivable personal slight, the man hangs the piglets and leaves their bodies strung up in the open. When the sow discovers the remains of the piglets, she runs madly around the farm squealing. The sow slips into a deep patch in the mud and drowns there. The man searches for the sow, and becomes visibly distraught when he discovers her dead. He drags the body from the mud, buries it on the farm grounds, and crudely attempts to bury himself on a patch of ground nearby. He gets up, and his grief turns to rage. He rushes around the farm scattering and smashing his belongings from the house, including his jars of waste. He prepares and vigorously consumes a "tea" made of feces and urine, determinedly climbs a ladder in the barn and hangs himself with a rope. In the final scene is his spirit floating skyward. ===== A lime-burner named Bartram and his son hear a disturbing roar of laughter echo through the twilight in the hills. Soon thereafter, Ethan Brand arrives at the lime kiln and is questioned by Bartram. Brand says that he used to keep the very same kiln before he went off in search of the "unpardonable sin", which he claims to have found. When asked what the unpardonable sin is, Brand replies, “It is a sin that grew within my own breast. A sin that grew nowhere else! The sin of an intellect that triumphed over the sense of brotherhood with man and reverence for God, and sacrificed everything to its own mighty claims! The only sin that deserves a recompense of immortal agony! Freely, were it to do again, would I incur the guilt. Unshrinkingly I accept the retribution!" Bartram doesn't understand, and mutters to himself that Brand is a mad man. A group of townspeople arrive at the scene to gawk at Brand. In the course of his interactions with them, Brand is disturbed by their coarse behavior and begins to doubt whether he really found the unpardonable sin. When the townspeople compare Brand to another so called "madman" named Humphrey, Brand recalls a victim of his search, Esther (Humphrey's daughter), who left the province to become a circus performer and who subsequently became the subject of Brand's psychological experiment. Brand remembers that the research, "wasted, absorbed, and perhaps annihilated her soul, in the process," and so he is again convinced that he found the "unpardonable sin". The Wandering Jew, carrying a diorama on his back, joins the assembled near the kiln after dusk. The children of the town flock to the Jew to see his images. When Brand looks into the diorama, he sees something that disturbs him. He orders the Jew to get into the furnace or leave. A village dog chases his own tail. The villagers head home, and Brand is left with Bartram and his son. Brand offers to tend the fire overnight, so Batram and the boy go home. Brand decides that his "task is done, and well done," and he climbs into the furnace to his death. Bartram and his son, after a night of fitful sleep and dreams full of maniacal laughter, awake to find the landscape populated by heavenly atmospheric phenomena. When they realize that Brand is gone, and that "the sky and the mountains all seem glad of it," they look into the lime kiln and find Brand's skeleton, transformed into lime. Inside the rib cage is a chunk of lime in the shape of a human heart. Bartram pokes the fragile artifacts and they crumble to dust. ===== The book opens with a boy called Jarred, a friend of Prince Endon. After the death of King Alton and his queen, Endon is proclaimed King in his father's place. To consummate this, a magical steel belt, the Belt of Deltora, is set around Endon's waist. The Belt recognizes Endon as Deltora's rightful king. Jarred goes to the library and learns that the evil Shadow Lord, a Sauron-like intelligence located in the Shadowlands, once tried to seize the land in which is the kingdom of Deltora. Because the people of those days were divided into seven tribes, the Shadow Army soon overwhelmed much of the land. Jarred learned that a blacksmith named Adin gathered the sacred talismans from each tribe and attached them to a chain of steel medallions. The people's trust in Adin, channeled through the gems, was powerful enough to drive back the Shadow Army into its own dark home, the Shadowlands. Adin later became king of the united land called Deltora; yet he never forgot that the Enemy was not destroyed. He therefore never let the Belt out of his sight. With every generation, the Belt was worn less and less, diminishing its effect. The kings and queens also let their power go to the administrative council, diminishing its power. Jarred, learning of this, urges Endon to put on the Belt and revive the custom of Adin. Before he can explain in detail, Chief Advisor Prandine enters and accuses Jarred of treason. Jarred escapes Prandine and finds that the city has fallen into disrepair, and Deltora has become a virtual dystopia. Jarred then becomes apprentice and successor to Crian the blacksmith, later to marry Crian's granddaughter Anna. Seven years later, the gems of Deltora were stolen by the Ak-Baba under the Shadow Lord and were scattered throughout the land. This also allowed the Enemy to enter the land. Jarred helps King Endon and Queen Sharn (Endon's pregnant bride) escape the invasion through a secret tunnel. Sixteen years later, the Shadow Lord tyrannically rules Deltora. A person identified as Jarred's son and apprentice, Lief, has been born during this time. He has been raised to reject the Shadow Lord, but never to show any obvious opposition. On his birthday, Lief's father sends his son, accompanied by a soldier named Barda, to find the lost gems from the Belt and restore them to the belt to defeat the evil shadowlord. The nearest gem, the golden topaz, is to be found in Mid Wood, which is one of three perilous Forests of Silence. While travelling to the forest, Wenns capture them and take them into First Wood as an offering to the predator known as Wennbar. Before being eaten, a wild forest-dwelling girl of Lief's own age, called Jasmine appears. Jasmine, after a brief reluctance, rescues Lief and Barda, later to leads them to the Dark in the heart of Mid Wood. There, they discover a wall made of steadfastly cultivated vines, enclosing a clearing in the very center of the forest. In that center grow three flowers called the Lilies of Life, whose nectar possesses healing properties and makes you live forever. The wall of vines was guarded by a Jalis knight called Gorl, who sought to drink of the Nectar of Life and become immortal. Over the years, Gorl's body has rotted away, leaving nothing behind but his memories and his intentions. He captures Lief and Barda. Under their questions, Gorl narrates all, while Barda strives to break the psychokinetic control held by the knight over their bodies. Barda breaks the grip, but is given a mortal wound by Gorl's sword. As he is about to kill Lief, Jasmine persuades a tree to drop a limb onto Gorl, thus destroying him and breaching his wall. Sunlight enters the Dark, and the Lilies of Life bloom at last. Jasmine and Lief use their nectar to heal the dying Barda. As the Lilies fade, Jasmine takes the last of the nectar into a jar, so that she might use it on future injuries. Lief takes the topaz from its position as the pommel of Gorl's sword and fits it into the Belt of Deltora. The three relax and recuperate, while animals from all over Mid Wood enter the breach in Gorl's wall and devour the vines. Later, Barda and Lief re-embark, with Jasmine and her animal companions Kree and Filli in company. ===== In The Forests of Silence, the topaz had been retrieved by Lief, Barda, and Jasmine. They continue on their way to the Lake of Tears, to retrieve the ruby. They learn that the land surrounding the Lake of Tears is controlled by the evil sorceress Thaegan, who has 13 monster children. As the companions travel through the countryside they rescue a man named Manus from the Shadow Lord's servants, Grey Guards. Manus is from the city of Raladin. 100 years ago, Thaegan put a spell on Raladin that caused them and all of their offspring to never be able to speak. Lief, Barda, and Jasmine also learn that Thaegan put a spell on the city of D'Or and turned it into the Lake of Tears. The companions, with Manus, escape from the Grey Guards only to be captured by Jin and Jod, two of Thaegan's children. They eventually defeat Jin and Jod and journey to the city of Raladin, where Manus hopes to find his people. Upon arrival, they find the city empty. Only when the Ralad people hear the companions, they come out of hiding. Lief, Barda, and Jasmine tell the Ralads that they must journey to the Lake of Tears, despite the Ralads pleas, but they do not tell them they are going in quest of one of the gems of the Belt of Deltora. Manus agrees to be their guide. When they get to the Lake of Tears, the monster Soldeen attacks them. Soldeen is a giant fish-like creature who is very deadly and has the ability to speak. Using the power of the topaz, Lief persuades Soldeen to give them the ruby. As Soldeen agrees, Thaegan appears and threatens to kill them all. The ruby flies out of Lief's hand and into the depths of the Lake as Thaegan uses her magic to harm them. Just as Thaegan is about to kill them all, Jasmine's bird Kree comes and kills Thaegan by drawing blood. All of Thaegan's spells are broken: the Ralads can now speak and the Lake of Tears turns back into the city of D'Or. Soldeen is a man named Nanion and gives the three companions the gem and wishes them well on their quest. The Belt now holds the topaz and ruby and now they journey towards the City of the Rats. ===== Following the adventures of the legendary outlaw hero and his team, this series tells all new tales pitting Robin, Little John, Marion, and Tuck against the forces of oppression and greed. Similar to other fantasy-action shows at the time, such as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and The Adventures of Sinbad, this version incorporates fantasy elements into the Robin Hood mythos, the most notable addition being the wizard Olwyn, who acts as a mentor to Robin. Among the recurring elements are enchanted weapons ("Robin and the Golden Arrow", "Devil's Bride"), monsters ("Nightmare of the Magic Castle", "Return of the Giant"), and time travel ("Return to Camelot", "The Time Machine"). ===== When Marcus Didius Falco discovers a corpse hidden under the floor of his new bath house, he starts to track down the men responsible - Glaucus and Cotta. He also receives a commission from the Emperor Vespasian. A building project for the British Chieftain Togidubnus is running late and over-budget. The first phase of construction had gone smoothly - the first buildings on site were granaries, providing a supply base for the Roman army, constructed in the early part of the conquest. But progress had stalled on the stone-walled house and bath suite that would be Togidubnus's residence. Suspecting that the men he seeks have fled to Britain, Falco accepts the mission and travels there with his wife, two baby daughters, their nurse, and his two brothers-in-law Aelianus and Justinus. Falco arrives at Fishbourne and starts by investigating corrupt practices. However events quickly take a turn for the worse when the Chief Architect is found murdered in the bath-house of the British King. Falco takes over the project and investigates the killings. ===== Richie is routinely physically abused by his father, a drunk who works in the construction industry. Richie adores his elder brother James and leads a life a petty crime and childhood dares with his friends. At the age of eight, he is molested in a cinema by a man who persuades him to come home with him. It is the first time he realises the power a knowing boy can have over a desperate pedophile. Richie regularly runs away from home and finds that this has the effect of stopping the abuse from his father. He is also sexually abused by his older cousin who is in the British Merchant Navy. By the age of twelve, his thoughts were continually turning to sex and he experiments with Pip. His prostitution excites and disgusts him in equal measure and the realities and dangers of rent boy prostitution are brought home when he is raped by two men. At fourteen, he had fallen for Mike, but Mike prefers girls and so their relationship is long-lasting but doomed. At fifteen, Richie is thinking of leaving home and thinking of making his living in London as a rent boy in Piccadilly Circus. Category:1989 British novels Category:Novels set in Liverpool Category:British autobiographical novels ===== George (Jake Weber) is a highly-strung professional photographer who is starting to unravel from the stress of his work with a Manhattan advertising agency. Needing some time away from the city, his wife Kim (Patricia Clarkson), and their 10-year-old son Miles (Erik Per Sullivan) head to upstate New York to take in the winter sights, though the drive up is hardly relaxing for any of them. George accidentally hits and severely injures a deer that ran onto the icy road. After George stops to inspect the damage, he's confronted by an angry local named Otis who flies into a rage, telling George that he and his fellow hunters had been tracking the deer for some time. An argument breaks out, which leaves George feeling deeply shaken. When George and Kim arrive at their cabin, they discover that a dark and intimidating presence seems to have taken it over. The next day, when they stop at a store in a town near the cabin, a shopkeeper tells Miles about the legend of the Wendigo, a deformed beast from Native American folklore who changes from a human to a hideous beast after engaging in cannibalism. The shopkeeper also tells him that the Wendigo also has supernatural powers and the ability to change its appearance at will. The shopkeeper then gives him a small figurine of a Wendigo. Miles can't help but think the Wendigo has something to do with the dark forces at work in the woods near the cabin. Later that day, while sledding together, George suddenly falls to the ground, leaving Miles alone and lost in the woods. Frightened, Miles approaches his dad when he is chased by the Wendigo and passes out. He is awakened later by a frightened Kim, who went looking for her family once they didn't come home. Kim and Miles begin a trek deep into the forest, until they end up at the house, where they find a bloody George crawling towards the car claiming Otis shot him. Frantic, Kim and Miles put George in the car and drive to the nearest hospital. It is revealed that George and Miles were sledding near a shooting range and Otis shot George in the liver with a hunting rifle. George undergoes emergency surgery and Miles walks into the hospital, hallucinates that his father is being assaulted by the Wendigo and faints. He awakens only to find that George has died. Otis is confronted by the local sheriff, but he kills the sheriff and drives away into the night, being stalked by the Wendigo until he crashes into a tree and runs away into the forest, eventually ending up on a road where he is hit by the deputy sheriff's squad car. The movie ends with Otis being carted into the emergency room of the hospital, and being followed by the Indian shopkeeper while Miles watches it all, caressing the Wendigo figurine. ===== The book "The Egg Tree" tells the history of two children named Katy and Carl. They are going to their grandmothers farm in Red Hills, Pennsylvania. This is the first time the children have the opportunity to spend Easter with their relatives from this part of the country, so they get to meet four of their cousins. The next morning the children wake up early to participate in the Easter egg hunt. Katy seems to have some trouble finding the eggs in this new and unexplored environment, so she decides to explore inside the house. In the attic looking around Katy finds six beautifully painted eggs that she takes to her grandmother immediately. The grandmother expresses her joy by saying, "Katy may not have found the most eggs, but she found the most beautiful eggs." Then, the grandmother decides to decorated a tree with the eggs using them as a kind of ornament. All the kids get inspired because of Katy's discovery and the grandmother's joy so they all decided to put special emphasis on their own decoration of the eggs. They decorated a large tree and the next year, one that was even larger. ===== Detective Rita Rizzoli (Whoopi Goldberg) an undercover narcotics police officer, stages an undercover buy with drug dealer Tito Delgadillo (Fred Asparagus). During the bust she sees her friend and informant Charlene (Cathianne Blore) being dragged out of the bar by her pimp and runs to her aid, thus alerting Delgadillo of her being an undercover cop. After saving Charlene and shooting the pimp, Rizzoli notices all the money used for the buy is missing. Delgadillo retreats to a warehouse in Los Angeles where a family of Asian immigrants is preparing plastic envelopes of imported cocaine stamped with the gang's brand name "Fatal Beauty". One worker, however, has been sampling too much of the drug and, in his intoxicated state, prepares envelopes with a fatally high concentration of cocaine and a misaligned stamp. Delgadillo discovers the error but before they can correct it, the house is attacked by two small-time hoods, Leo Nova and Earl Skinner (Brad Dourif and Mike Jolly) who kill everyone within including Delgadillo and steal the lethal product. Back at the police station, Rizzoli is chewed out by her boss, Lt. Kellerman (John P. Ryan), for ruining the bust. He receives a call saying Rizzoli is needed at the warehouse where the drugs were being made. At the warehouse Rizzoli identifies Delgadillo (the only victim authorities weren't able to identify because his face was mutilated during the attack) by pointing out the diamond pinkie ring on his finger bearing his initials that he showed Rizzoli earlier that evening. Rizzoli also discovers traces of "Fatal Beauty" and Charlie Dawson's body, which was stuffed in a van labeled "Kroll Enterprises". The next morning Rizzoli receives a call from Charlene, asking for money. When Rizzoli refuses, Charlene offers some information about the drug-related murder the previous night, hoping to sway Rizzoli to give her the money. Charlene tells Rizzoli that there is a goon squad looking for the killers. She also tells her that the person, to whom all the drugs belonged, drove a "Rolls." That prompts Rizzoli to pay a visit to Conrad Kroll (Harris Yulin), whom she accuses of drug dealing. After leaving Kroll's home, Rizzoli hears a call for assistance over the scanner involving a police standoff. Realizing that Charlene lives there, she immediately rushes to the location. At the location a man who is hopped up on drugs emerges from Charlene's house and shoots Rizzoli's fellow officer, Shigeda (Steve Akahoshi) in the arm, wounding him. The assembled officers all open fire on the man, but due to the drugs in his system, he doesn't go down right away. After the man finally falls to the ground and dies, Rizzoli runs into Charlene's house, where she attempts to resuscitate her with no success. Rizzoli is told by a boy at the location that both Charlene and the man who was shot, "Big Bubba" were both taken out by the new drugs and that they got it from Charlene's new pimp, "Jimmy". Rizzoli and her partner Detective Jimenez (Rubén Blades) find him in a restaurant, where Rizzoli places him under arrest; when he tries to escape, she shoots him in the buttocks. After hanging him up in the freezer and threatening more bodily harm, Rizzoli gets him to reveal that he purchased the drugs from a buy house from a man named Rafael. Rizzoli heads to the buy house the pimp told her about and is greeted by a man named Epifanio, who tells her he will get her what she wants. She is able to get Epifanio to take her to Rafael, but a hood from the night she staged the bust with Delgadillo recognizes her as a cop and immediately alerts Nova and Skinner. Rizzoli is able to get locked in a room with Rafael, where she gets Rafael to admit he is fronting for Nova and Skinner right as two of his crew members shoot their way inside. Rizzoli dives for safety, but Rafael is killed in the crossfire. Rizzoli shoots down one of the thugs, but the other gets the drop on her, but she is saved by the timely arrival of Mike Marshak, Kroll's bodyguard (Sam Elliott) who shows up at the buy house to help Rizzoli, and admits that he has been following her around since the night before by using a transmitter concealed under her bumper. After taking out the rest of Rafael's gang, Rizzoli and Marshak come close to apprehending Nova and Skinner when a section of the a roof collapses on Rizzoli; Marshak immediately runs to her aid, letting Nova and Skinner escape. Rizzoli is taken to a nearby hospital, Vista Verde where Marshak goes to visit her. Upon walking into Rizzoli's room, Marshak sees Rizzoli and Jiminez going over the mug shots of Nova and Skinner and Jiminez immediately leaves after Marshak's arrival. When Jiminez goes toward the elevator he notices Nova from the mug shot carrying a package and orders him to freeze. Nova pulls out a shotgun from the package and fires at Jiminez, missing him. After getting into an argument about what Marshak's boss Kroll is allegedly doing, Rizzoli agrees to let Marshak drive her home. Rizzoli notices her cat on the roof and explains to Marshak about her cat's fear of heights and her front door being open. They both go into her residence see Zack Yeager (James LeGros) asleep. Yeager tells Rizolli that all his friends have died from using Fatal Beauty. This is further confirmed when he, Rizzoli and Marshak arrive at the home of one of the kids who threw the party and finds them all lying dead in the living room. Yeager tells Rizolli he got the drugs from his mother, Cecille (Jennifer Warren). When Rizzoli goes to Cecille in an attempt to get information about where the drugs came from, the two get into a physical altercation until Marshak arrives to break it up and takes Rizolli home. At home, Rizzoli invites Marshak into her house for some coffee and receives a phone call that four young children had died from using Fatal Beauty; Rizzoli then has a breakdown and tells Marshak that she is a recovering drug addict, having quit after her daughter got into her drug stash and drowned in a swimming pool. Rizzoli takes a shower, during which she receives a call and notices Marshak has left, and that he went through her police files of the suspects she was after. At the point Rizzoli learns that Kroll had sent Marshak not to protect Rizzoli, but to spy on her to find out who ripped him off. Rizzoli receives a call from Cecille learning that Zack had cut his wrist and was in the hospital. Cecille asks Rizzoli to meet her at the hospital where she reveals who she bought the drugs from and that her supplier, Denny Mifflin (Neill Barry), will be making a pickup from his suppliers Nova and Skinner at Kroll Plaza. Rizzoli and Jiminez head to Kroll plaza and are spotted by Kroll's security team. Rizolli and Jiminez are watching Mifflin and Rizolli orders Jiminez to get the drugs away from some kids that they spotted Mifflin selling to. When Jiminez gets the drugs from the kids he is knocked out by one of Kroll's security men. When Kroll is alerted to Rizzoli's presence, Marshak who is with Kroll notices Nova and Skinner entering the plaza. Kroll orders one of his men to take out Nova and Skinner and then orders Marshak to take out Rizzoli. Rizzoli meanwhile notices Nova, Skinner, Mifflin and his bodyguard, Frankenstein (Mark Pellegrino) meeting together in a mall store to discuss drug distribution and follows them into the store. Rizzoli is followed into the store by Kroll's security team with their guns drawn. Just as Rizzoli is about to bust Nova, Skinner, Mifflin and Frankenstein she is accosted by Marshak who warns her it is a wipeout in which all five of them are going to be killed. Rizzoli then punches Marshak, which frightens Nova, Skinner, Mifflin and Frankenstein. When running in the store, Frankenstein is grabbed by one of the security guards. He then stabs him in the stomach. The security guard falls to the ground knocking over a rack of clothes. Frankenstein then is grabbed by Kroll's bodyguard, Eddie and is shot three times in the stomach. Frankenstien slashes Eddie's arm with his switchblade, forcing him to back off, but dies seconds later while calling to Mifflin for help. Rizzoli then shoots Mifflin after he fires at her. Rizzoli and the security guards pursuit Nova and Skinner, who open fire in the mall, killing several guards and Eddie, and then retreat into a sporting goods store, followed by another of Kroll's men and three surviving guards. Nova and Skinner race to the back of the store and shoot the fuse boxes, cutting the main power to the store lights (but the emergency lights come on seconds after). Rizzoli cautiously makes her way through the store, but the security guards get the drop on her, but she is inadvertently saved by Nova and Skinner when they gun the guards down. A short gun fight ensues between Rizzoli and the two men, but she runs out of ammunition. Nova and Skinner try to move in and finish her off, but she manages to give them the slip long enough to break into a gun cabinet and get a lever action rifle and some bullets. After Rizzoli kills Kroll's other bodyguard who was poised to ambush her from above and takes his gun, the shelf he was standing on collapses on her and Skinner prepares to kill her; at the last minute, however, Marshak appears and guns him down. Nova wounds Marshak before he, in turn, is wounded by Rizzoli, and retreats from the store. Rizzoli pursues Nova and runs into Kroll, who is about to kill her when Nova jumps out of a hiding place and kills him. Rizzoli follows Nova into a parking garage and shoots him several times, apparently unable to injure him. After Nova reveals to Rizzoli he was wearing a bullet- proof vest this whole time Rizolli pulls out a gun she stole from the dead guard and shoots Nova in the throat, killing him. Rizzoli meets the paramedics outside the plaza, where Jiminez is waiting along with Marshak, who muses to Rizzoli that he might be going to jail for a long time because of his connection to Kroll. Rizzoli agrees, but tenderly tells him that she'll be waiting for him when he gets out. She then gives him a kiss and tells him with a smile that he'll be fine. ===== John and Dean are two sheltered happy-go-lucky brothers who want nothing more than to please their ailing father. Deciding a grandson will do the trick, the clueless boys set out to find a woman who can give them a baby. Finding Janine on Craigslist, they find the woman of their dreams, artificially inseminating her and spending the next nine months on a roller coaster of life, facing romantic and parental challenges along the way that are no match for their sunny attitude. ===== The film begins with Gayle, Becky and Judi performing in McCormick State College's Senior Talent Show in 1992. The three of them were the 'losers' and geeks in college but were always hopeful about their future. The next scene then jumps to 15 years later. Gayle is now a guide dog trainer for the visually handicapped. She asks her client out on a date but gets rejected after he touches her face. Becky is an office manager for Senator Hartmann. Judi and her fiance, William, go for relationship counseling and insist that there are no secrets between them. Becky returns home only to find her cat, Honey, dead. The three of them hold their usual 'make your own pizza party' and play their usual 'movie game'. They decide to go on a trip to Tempe, Arizona to the Wimmin's Music Festival. Senator Hartmann announces to her team that she is the potential next vice president. In order to ensure success, she has to make sure that she has a good reputation and background. Ashley, her daughter, just broke up with her boyfriend because she is not slutty enough. In order to win him back and not disappoint her mother, she decides that she will be going to South Padre for her spring break. She wants her to think that she is 'just like her mother was back in the days' - the most popular girl in her sorority and 'always up for a good time'. In order to make sure that Ashley does not act out, Senator Hartmann sends Becky to go to South Padre to keep an eye on her. Throughout the trip, Gayle becomes very close to a group of girls called The Sevens who are Ashley's nemesis. Judi returns home and discovers that William is actually gay and he ends up breaking off with her. Judi meets up with Becky and Gayle and the three of them decide to go to South Padre to relive the college days that they never had. Even though the girls are appalled with the state of the place, Gayle and Judi fit into the crowd easily. They spend the next few days getting wasted while Becky keeps to the main reason of her being there. Gayle and Judi eventually persuade Becky into relaxing. One night at a foam party, Ashley finds out that Becky was actually sent by her mother and feels betrayed because she thought they were friends. They engage in a cat fight and end up in jail. That night, William goes to find Judi and asks for a second chance. Then Judi bails Becky and Ashley out of jail. She announces to everyone that she is going to marry William. Gayle declares that she's going to be in the All Girl Talent Show with The Sevens because she is finally going to win. This leads to an argument, and Judi leaves to get married, while Becky and Gayle prepare separately for the talent contest. At the airport, Judi finally admits to herself that William is gay and tells him she can't marry him. Gayle falls out with Mason, the leader of The Sevens, just before they go on stage. Senator Hartmann appears backstage and wants to bring Ashley back home by force. They have a confrontation and Ashley begs her mother to let her compete in the show, and her mother relents. As the group begins to perform, the pianist passes out (drunk) and Judi returns just in time to replace her. They perform, with begrudged success. The film ends with the three of them back home, at their usual 'make your own pizza party' playing their usual 'movie game'. ===== A king offers his daughter's hand in marriage to the wealthiest suitor in the kingdom. She is wooed by the despicable wizard Ali Kazam, but falls for a pauper boy with a yo-yo. The boy is kicked out of the palace by the king's men, whereupon the diminutive magical creature Nicky Nome appears to help him, giving him a flying carpet to travel to a valley of jewels. When Ali Kazam attacks on a vulture, Nicky gradually transforms the carpet into a Chevrolet motor car. ===== TV reporter Adolph Caesar is outside Madison Square Garden before the start of a martial arts tournament that will apparently determine the "successor" to the legacy of Bruce Lee. He interviews martial arts promoter Aaron Banks, who says that Lee was actually killed by a kung fu move called "The Touch of Death." Banks describes the move as being effective in "three to four weeks." The segment contains a sequence of flashbacks to Bruce Lee ostensibly supporting Banks' assertion. From inside Madison Square Garden, Caesar discusses the competitors . He talks about the legacy of Bruce Lee, and shows what he describes as "interview footage" he did with Lee shortly before his death. Then, Caeser flashes back to earlier in the day, where action star Fred Williamson seen having to traverse through a number of obstacles to get to the tournament while being repeatedly mistaken for Harry Belafonte. Next, Ron Van Clief is also profiled and interviewed. Van Clief is then seen saving a woman from four hoodlums in a New York park. The middle section of the film is devoted to "The Bruce Lee Story," a chronicle of Bruce Lee's early years in China, where he is depicted as being "karate crazy," much to the dismay of his parents. The footage from this section of the story is from the 1957 Bruce Lee film Thunderstorm, which has also been redubbed.http://www.sykografix.com/articles/article39/index.html This act of the presentation purports that Lee was learning karate to live up to the legacy of his great grandfather, who was "one of China's greatest Samurai masters" (an anachronism as China did not actually have Samurai, these were in fact Japanese warriors).http://www.sykografix.com/articles/article39/index.html The life of Lee's grandfather is also portrayed in this act at alternating points, in scenes lifted from Invincible Super Chan. Later, Lee leaves home and lands a career as an actor. This segues into a scene of Bill Louie, dressed as Kato from The Green Hornet, saving two female joggers from being raped by a gang near the World War II memorial in Battery Park in broad daylight. This segment ends after Louie apparently murders the last conscious gang member with a throwing star. After Caesar announces the conclusion of "The Bruce Lee Story," the film transitions back to Madison Square Garden, where a number of performers are showcased. Caesar interviews Fred Williamson, who denounces the idea of a contest to determine Bruce Lee's successor. The grande finale is devoted to a two-round kickboxing match, in which Louis Neglia reigns victorious. Adolph Caesar concludes the film with a final thought. ===== On the demonic Twelfth Plane, the demon Zdim Akh's son is drafted for a year's indentured servitude on the human Prime Plane, the demon society having an agreement to provide service to human sorcerers in return for supplies of iron, a raw material it desperately needs. Zdim is duly summoned to the Prime Plane by the sorcerer Dr. Maldivius of Novaria. There he strives to do his duty, but his demonic literal-mindedness hampers him. Assigned to protect the Sibylline Sapphire from any trespassers, he promptly eats Maldivius' apprentice Grax when the latter intrudes. Similar misadventures result in the disgusted Maldivius selling his contract, and the demon is passed from one master to another, from circus master Bagardo to the rich widow Roska of Ir, all the while doing his level best to figure out what the muddled humans truly wish of him. Against all odds he becomes a hero when he recruits aid for the city-state of Ir after it discounts intelligence of an imminent invasion by the cannibal Paaluans. Returning to his home plane early and with extra iron, he resolves never again to leave the comforts of the Twelfth Plane — until he realizes how dull it is compared with the picturesque insanity of the human realm... By internal chronology, The Fallible Fiend is the second story in the Novarian series, coming after the short story "The Emperor's Fan", which is set centuries before the others, and prior to the Reluctant King trilogy. (The Paaluan invasion of Ir is mentioned in the second and third books of the trilogy, The Clocks of Iraz and The Unbeheaded King, respectively, as an event occurring either recently or some generations past.) ===== Gradisil takes place over several generations of the Gyeroffy family, the novel's timeline spanning from 2059 to the first half of the 22nd century, circa 2130. On these generations hang the novel's basic plots - a murder story, a domestic story, a political story and a revenge story. The first involves Klara Gyeroffy and her father, an aeronautics hobbyist, in their establishment of the low Earth orbit settlement of the Uplands. With the advent of more efficient propulsion technology, space travel reaches a new level of attainability, the Uplands phenomenon being a product of direct access, for those wealthy enough, to the lower orbits. The Uplands has no legal or taxation systems, civic obligations, boundaries, politics or treaties. In 2059 Klara's father Miklós flies Kristin Janzen Kooistra, a tenant who requires a hideaway, for their Upland lodging. Kooistra kills him during docking, it being later revealed that she is a serial killer at large. Klara, orphaned, flees to Jon, a neighbour in Canada, in distress. The pair soon remove Upland and organise a more permanent residence there, with other billionaire eccentrics of the neighbourhood. The next portion of Gradisil is largely an exposition of the environment's domestic capacity, Roberts investigating the challenges and novelties of day-to-day Upland life, the question of zero-g as hindrance and boon, and ever-present logistics issues. Jon and Klara become sexual partners, but she soon tires of him and develops a relationship with Teruo Nakagomi, a shrewd businessman. After falling pregnant by him, Klara returns to Earth to deliver her child. Her daughter, Gradisil, is born in 2063. Gradisil is about Earthbound conflict as well as Upland conflict. United States-EU tensions of the previous century have become critical, with war finally erupting in 2065. Politically, the Uplands is still a non-entity and the pioneers remaining proudly aloof to "Downland" politics. Klara remains on Earth, supporting Gradisil. In 2081 the first seizure of "EU houses" by the US takes place in the Uplands. The orbit settlement is now transformed into both a political and military battlefield, with the US anti- Upland and EU pro-Upland, and receives increasing coverage by Earth media over the coming years. Klara is appointed EU envoy to the Uplands in 2075. Two new narrators are introduced: Lieutenant Slater of the United States Upland Corps, providing insights into the exigencies and metamorphoses of that nation's military-industrial complex in the late 21st century; and Paul Caunes, Gradisil's second husband, who would later betray her to US authorities. As the Uplands comes into its own as the first extraterrestrial country in human history, Gradisil consolidates her role of political activism and de facto media ambassador. Many Uplanders later address her as "President" during her household visits. She is embarked on a campaign to awaken in the rudimentary nation "matriotism"—a unique nationalism for a unique entity—which aims to preserve a default peacetime anarchy. In 2091 and 2093 Gradisil's sons, Hope and Solidarity respectively, are born, however Paul Caunes is the biological father of neither. 2099 sees the onset of the US-Upland war. Every logistical aspect of the war has been meticulously designed by the US to fulfil a new legal bureaucratic order (for instance, the war must officially conclude before the turn of the century and take no longer than 72 hours in all), Slater contending that the real war takes place in the courts. Gradisil and her young nation lie under siege for months, their supply lines cut off by USUC forces. All the while she has turned pregnant with her first child to Paul. Knowing that she cannot return to Earth without being captured, she sacrifices the foetus in orbit. Gradisil waits for the opportune moment to launch a kamikaze attack on USUC orbital stations. It proves effective, and shatters the image of US unassailability that the European loss of the "war of '81" cemented. There occurs a realisation, both Down- and Upland, that the United States can never exercise any meaningful control over the territory. Upon embarking on the victory rounds, Gradisil and her retinue are soon led into a trap, she falling into US custody. The novel leaps forward twenty years, to focus on an adult Hope, on business excursion to the Uplands, trying to secure an investment for a mining project on Mercury. However, his brother Sol is also at the hotel complex at which he's lodged, on an assassination mission, the target being Paul Caunes. Hope has a run-in with an undercover American agent, under the assumption that Hope conspires with his brother. Sol kills him, shortly secures his father and escapes with him and Hope. On board the escape ship, a kangaroo court is held in what turns out to be a makeshift Upland town hall. Caunes is sent into the vacuum to die, after telling his sons that he is "sorry". ===== Bike messenger Jace Damon attempts to live under the radar in Los Angeles with his younger brother (Tyler, who has an IQ of 168). The two are raised by their mother, who does her best to remain anonymous. When she falls ill Jace takes her to the hospital, making sure that he is not associated with her. The mother dies, and her children cannot claim her body. Instead, Jace takes his brother to find a new place, deciding that the Chinese community would be the best for them; eventually an elderly Chinese businesswoman (Madame Chen) takes a liking to the pair of boys and gives Jace a part-time job and a place to stay. He also takes a job as a bike messenger, since he can be paid in cash for it. One night, Jace accepts a delivery just as he is about to go off-duty; it is a pickup from the office of one of L.A.'s sleaziest defense attorneys, Lenny Lowell. He is not happy about the late delivery since it is a wet miserable night, but the dispatcher tells him that everyone else has gone off duty, and he is the only one available. Lowell is extremely (despite his reputation) nice to Jace, giving him a good tip. When Jace approaches the delivery address, he finds an empty lot which makes him nervous, so he decides to abort the delivery. Before he can get away, a large black car comes racing towards him to run him down. He barely survives the collision and is forced to abandon his bike. On foot, he is able to elude his pursuer, but loses his delivery bag (but retains the package). Jace returns to the scene of the collision and is relieved to discover that he will only have to replace the wheel. He returns to Lowell's office, only to find it crawling with police; he learns that Lowell has been murdered. Jace does not trust police, so he leaves the scene. In a city fueled by money, celebrity and sensationalism, the slaying of a bottom-feeder like Lowell won't make headlines. So when LAPD's elite show up, homicide detective Kev Parker (assigned to Lowell's case) wants to know why. Parker begins a search for answers that will lead him to a killer—or to the end of his career. Because if there's one lesson Parker has learned over the years, it's that in a town built on fame and fantasy, delivering the truth can be murder. ===== In South Africa in 1980, Patrick Chamusso, a young, apolitical man, is accused of carrying out a terrorist attack. Afrikaner police officer Nic Vos is in charge of locating the perpetrators of a recent bomb attack against the Secunda CTL synthetic fuel refinery, which is the largest coal liquefaction plant in the world. Patrick is unwillingly swept into Vos's investigation due to his inability to provide a satisfactory explanation for his whereabouts at the time of the bombing (he was actually having an affair with a woman not his wife). Eventually Patrick, his wife, Precious, and his family are tortured by Vos and his subordinates. Desperate, Patrick says that he is willing to confess to a crime he did not commit to protect his family. Vos concludes that Patrick is innocent, and orders his release. Fuelled by the anger at the injustices he and his family suffered, Patrick joins Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC (the African National Congress—South Africa's anti-apartheid movement) and becomes exactly what Vos had initially accused him of being. He attempts to execute a plan to attack Secunda, the oil refinery he used to work for, by first bombing its adjacent water supply facilities, and 15 minutes later triggering the main explosion within the refinery itself. This would allow the refinery's workforce to flee between the two explosions, and not be harmed. Also, the damage of the first bomb would reduce the possibility of successfully extinguishing the fire caused by the second, main explosion. Patrick succeeds in the first part, but the second bomb is discovered by Vos and deactivated. Patrick is arrested and sentenced to 24 years in prison, after his wife goes to Vos and tells him where Patrick is, because she fell for a simple trick in which Vos left photographs of Patrick talking to a female member of the ANC. Due to her unjustified jealousy, she sells him out. He is released early due to the abolition of apartheid. Precious, who has remarried, is waiting for him and apologizes, and Patrick forgives her and says he is sorry as well. Some time later, he sees Vos sitting out near a small body of water. He creeps over and sees that it is indeed Vos, and though a part of him wants to break Vos' neck, he decides that it is not worth it. He left Vos alone, and went on to remarry and take in over 80 orphaned children in South Africa to provide a home for kids who lost their families during the anti-apartheid struggle. ===== In the kingdom of Lamia, baby Ella of Frell is given the "gift" of obedience by misguided and obnoxious fairy godmother, Lucinda Perriweather; Ella is magically compelled to instantly obey any command she is given. On her deathbed, Ella's mother, Lady Eleanor, warns her not to tell anyone about the gift, for fear someone might use it to exploit Ella. Only Mandy, the household fairy, knows the secret. Years later, Ella's father, Sir Peter, marries wealthy socialite, Dame Olga, who dislikes Ella. Her spoiled daughters, Hattie and Olive, discover Ella's obedience and use it to humiliate her. Ella stumbles upon Prince "Char" Charmont, pursued by his besotted fan club, who invites her to his coronation ball, but Olga intercepts the invitation. Jealous, Hattie and Olive force Ella to cut ties with her best friend, Areida. Ella resolves to find Lucinda to undo her gift. Mandy lends Ella her boyfriend, Benny, whom she accidentally transformed into a magic book. Learning that Lucinda is attending a wedding in Giantville, Ella leaves home to find her. On her journey, Ella rescues Slannen, an elf who wants to be a lawyer rather than be forced to be an entertainer. They are captured by ogres who intend to eat them, but are rescued by Prince Charmont. He joins them as he intends to avenge the death of his father, King Florian, and Ella opens his eyes to the cruelty of the laws oppressing elves and giants enacted by Char’s paternal uncle, Sir Edgar, the acting ruler. They discover Lucinda has already left, and Char suggests visiting the castle’s hall of records to find her faster, which is overheard by Edgar's snake, Heston. After Ella performs "Somebody to Love" for the wedding guests, she and Char begin to fall in love. At the castle, Edgar learns of Ella's gift from her stepsisters. Knowing his nephew is in love with her, Edgar orders Ella to murder Char at midnight when he inevitably proposes to her at the coronation ball, and to keep this plan secret. Edgar reveals that he murdered Char's father, and the prince’s death will make Edgar king. Ella writes Char a letter, saying she must leave but cannot explain why. She has Slannen chain her to a tree, hoping to wait out Edgar's command, while Slannen recruits more elves and giants to protect Char. As night falls, Lucinda appears and Ella begs her to take back her gift. Offended, Lucinda insists that Ella remove the gift herself, unchains her, and gives her a fancy dress. Forced back to the castle, Ella stumbles into the ball. Char whisks her away to a secret hall of mirrors where he proposes. As Ella is about to stab Char, she sees her reflection and commands herself to no longer be obedient, freeing herself from the gift. Char notices the dagger, and Edgar has Ella arrested before she can explain herself. Benny, who was left in the hall of records and thrown out, is found by Slannen. Benny reveals Ella in the dungeon, and Slannen sneaks into the castle along with a band of elves, giants, and ogres, and frees her. Benny shows that Edgar has poisoned Char's crown, intending to kill him at his coronation. As Char is about to be crowned, Ella and the others crash the ceremony and a brawl with Edgar's soldiers ensues. In the scuffle, Mandy manages to turn Benny human again. As Char and Ella fight off the guards together, she confesses her love for him, and reveals Edgar's plot and his murder of Char's father, which Edgar denies. Heston almost fatally bites Char, but is kicked away by Ella and trampled by Char's fan club; Char takes this as evidence of his uncle's guilt. Edgar then denounces the prince, and attempts to proclaim himself king, but unknowingly puts on the poisoned crown and collapses. Soon after, Char and Ella are married, much to the envy of Ella's stepsisters; and Char toasts to a new era of equality among all citizens of the kingdom. Edgar is revealed to still be alive, but physically and cognitively impaired. The cast performs a final dance number of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", before the newlyweds ride off on their honeymoon. ===== The player controls Battle-Girl, piloting her Soyuz 1183-A BattleCraft and destroying programmers released by Terminus, weapon of Chaos. The player must journey through countless programs and protect their function pods to defeat Terminus and save the Great Machine. ===== Similarly to The Sopranos (which the show has been compared to) White's personal life is intertwined with his business life. He lives with his partner Cassidy, who is half his age, and their son, while in the process of divorcing his wife Beth (Barbara Marten). His oldest son Darren is his business partner, while his other two children with Beth also feature. Kenny Doughty also stars in 4 episodes as Cassidy's love interest. ===== In a woodpile on a farm in Payson, Utah, a rambunctious orange kitten named Banjo constantly makes mischief, to his family's dismay. After one of Banjo's stunts nearly gets his little sisters killed, Banjo's father prepares to whip the kitten and orders Banjo to retrieve the switch that will be used against him; Banjo instead runs away. He hitches a ride on a feed truck to Salt Lake City. In the big city, Banjo finds excitement at first, but soon he causes a massive traffic accident. He eventually retreats to the alleys, homesick and hungry. Another cat named Crazy Legs discovers Banjo and offers to help him find his way back home. During their search, Crazy Legs and Banjo come to a night club and enlist the help of more cats, including a singing cat trio (Cleo, Melina and Zazu). Later that night, while searching for the truck that could take him back to the farm, Banjo and Crazy Legs are chased by a pack of dogs. The pair barely escape and end up at the singing cats' home for the night. The next morning, Banjo wakes up and hears the driver of the truck out in the street. The cats rejoice and say many goodbyes before Banjo gets on the truck and eventually reunites with his family, who are happy to see him home. Cinema Cats ===== During World War I, the young lieutenant in charge of a small British mounted patrol in the empty Mesopotamian desert is shot and killed by an unseen sniper. This leaves the sergeant at a loss, since he had not been told what their mission is and has no idea where they are. Riding north in the hope of rejoining their brigade, the eleven remaining men reach a deserted oasis where they find water, edible dates, and shelter. During the night, one of the sentries is killed, the other seriously wounded, and all their horses are stolen, leaving them stranded. They bury the dead man and put his sword at the head of his grave. One by one, the remaining men are picked off by the unseen assailants. During the course of the film, the men talk and reminisce and fight—and deal with their situation. In desperation, the sergeant sends two men chosen by lot on foot for help, but they are caught and their mutilated bodies returned. One man, Abelson, suffering from heat exhaustion, sees a mirage and wanders into deadly rifle fire. The pilot of a British biplane spots the survivors, but nonchalantly lands nearby and despite frantic warnings is killed. After dark, the sergeant takes the machine gun from the aircraft and then sets the plane on fire as a signal to any British troops. Sanders, a religious fanatic, goes mad and walks into deadly fire. In the end only the sergeant is left and, thinking he too is dead, the six Arabs who have been besieging the oasis advance on foot. Using the machine gun from the aircraft, the sergeant kills them all. A British patrol which had seen the smoke from the burning plane rides up and the officer in charge asks the sergeant roughly where his men are. In silence, the sergeant looks toward their graves, six swords gleaming in the sun. ===== Two best friends from the province of Iloilo, Pearl (Pauleen Luna), a simple and smart girl, and her longtime best friend Jonathan (Gian Carlos), who secretly harbors romantic feelings for her, arrive in Manila to study in an Arts Academy. Upon enrollment, a clique of students led by Mimi (Iwa Moto), takes interest in them. Mimi is a pretty, rich and popular girl who gets her way through bullying others. Her minions consist of her right-hand woman, painter Eva (Katarina Perez), basketball jock Joshua (Jason Abalos), film and photography major Jowee (Glaiza de Castro), and delinquent band frontman Hector (Ketchup Eusebio). Mimi takes Pearl and Jonathan into her fold, befriending them in exchange for academic favors from the smart and studious Pearl. However, Pearl rebuffs the clique after realizing their deceptions; while Jonathan, on the other hand, is seduced and swayed by a prominent fraternity. Soon after, Pearl and Jonathan's close friendship becomes estranged. One night, Pearl experiences strange paranormal occurrences in the campus and has visions of a woman in white singing a folk lullaby. She and Jonathan learn from others of the story of a white lady which has been rumored to have frequented the school grounds. A carpenter reveals to Jonathan about a storage shed that burnt down and a vision of the said woman at the same spot. Pearl meets and befriends Tasya, a kindhearted Guimaras-born elderly woman residing in a house situated on the Academy's vast campus. Tasya tells the story of her granddaughter Christina (Angelica Panganiban), a simple girl also hailing from Iloilo and Guimaras who was reportedly driven into hiding by Mimi’s pompousness. Pearl immediately feels an affinity towards Christina since both girls have been on the receiving end of Mimi’s dirty actions. The haunting worsens when Pearl lands the highly coveted lead role in the school play, which also earns her the brunt of Mimi’s ire since Mimi had wanted the role for herself. On top of everything else, a burgeoning relationship begins to kindle between Pearl and Robbie (JC de Vera), the rich, athletic and most popular guy in school, whom Mimi also desires. Flashbacks show the story of Christina. Robbie befriends her after rescuing her from bullies and Mimi's gang. The two begin a relationship which his father opposed and forced them to separate and have Robbie choose Mimi. Soon thereafter, Mimi's friends begin to torment her frequently. Christina shuns Robbie after being having her way by his and the gang's actions. After the gang imprison her in a storage shed, Mimi poisons a janitor to silence him and Robbie, under her influence, murders Christina by setting the shed on fire. In a series of intense ghostly appearances, the white lady manifests herself to the "in" group, letting them experience her wrath one by one. Hector is suffocated by rats when he falls into a hole after encountering the entity dissolving to rodents, Joshua falls from Mimi's bedroom window after a possessed doll chases him, Eva's arm is severed when she tries to escape an art room where she tries to finish a painting, Jowee is blinded by flashes in a darkroom and gets hyperventilated, while Mimi is hit by shattered mirror shards in a dressing room during a concert's premiere. During a Halloween feast, Pearl receives news that her mother is suffering from leukemia and reveals to Robbie that she is returning to Iloilo. Robbie grows overzealous and disoriented after seeing Christina's vision in his cellphone. Pearl escapes to a gypsy tent wherein she is drawn to a vision that relives the final moments of Christina. It is from here that she learns of Robbie's crime and she shuns Robbie. While on the run, Pearl is captured by Robbie and dragged to the storage shed. Jonathan witnesses this and intervenes only to be subdued by Robbie. In an attempt to silence them, Robbie sets the shed on fire and flees the scene on a motorcycle. The white lady, now revealed to be Christina, appears and causes his motorcycle to crash. He flees to a carillon wherein bells play a lullaby and Christina causes Robbie to fall to his death. It is then revealed that Pearl and Jonathan manage to survive and escape the shed fire unharmed due to Christina's soul diverting the flames. Later on, Christina walks to a light in a field, presumably the gate of Heaven, where God's spirit awaits her. Later on, Pearl returns to the province and visits Tasya wherein she reveals that her mother has died of the ailment. As Tasya reveals that she sees Christina's soul departing for the after life, Pearl states that despite their losses, they vow to take care of each other. As they comfort each other, Christina's voice sings her lullaby as she gazes down from Heaven with God on the two in the form of wind and sunlight. ===== Monsieur Dufour (André Gabriello), a shop-owner from Paris, takes his family for a day of relaxation in the country. When they stop for lunch at the roadside restaurant of Poulain (Jean Renoir), two young men there, Henri (Georges D'Arnoux) and Rodolphe (Jacques B. Brunius), take an interest in Dufour's daughter Henriette (Sylvia Bataille) and wife Madame Dufour (Jane Marken). They scheme to get the two women off alone with them. They offer to row them along the river in their skiffs, while they divert Dufour and his shop assistant and future son-in-law, Anatole (Paul Temps), by lending them some fishing poles. Though Rodolphe had arranged beforehand to take Henriette, Henri maneuvers it so that she gets into his skiff. Rodolphe then good-naturedly settles for Madame Dufour. As Henri rows, Henriette expresses her enthusiasm for the countryside. Henri suggests that she could come visit again, on her own, by train if necessary, and offers to meet her. Henriette says that her father would never permit it. Henri rows to a secluded spot on the riverbank which he refers to as his "private office". Henriette initially resists his amorous advances, but stops struggling after a moment. A rainstorm that has been threatening all afternoon arrives, but the party's return to the inn is not depicted. Title cards indicate that years have passed and that Henriette has married Anatole. One day, they end up at the place where Henri seduced Henriette. While Anatole dozes, his wife takes a walk, and encounters Henri. With tears in her eyes, she reminisces about their brief time together. Then, when Anatole wakes up, Henri hides until they leave. ===== The story features the interaction between the children of the household and the carved lions featured, who come to life and take care of them. ===== In rural China, in 1935, all but one of the white residents of a remote Christian mission post are women. The strict Miss Agatha Andrews (Margaret Leighton) is the head of the mission, assisted by the meek Miss Argent (Mildred Dunnock). Charles Pether (Eddie Albert) is a mission teacher who always wanted to be a pastor; his peevish, panicky, self-centred and domineering middle-aged wife Florrie (Betty Field) is pregnant for the first time. Emma Clark (Sue Lyon) is the only young staff member, whom Miss Andrews treats as if she was her daughter. The mission is elated to learn that a much-needed doctor is arriving. However, they are shocked to discover that Dr. Cartwright (Anne Bancroft) is a Chicago woman who smokes, drinks alcohol, swears, wears pants and short hair, disdains religion and sits before grace. She and Miss Andrews are soon at odds. Emma, who has led a very sheltered life, is fascinated by the newcomer, much to Miss Andrews's dismay. After she has settled in, Dr. Cartwright urges Miss Andrews to provide money to send Florrie Pether to a modern facility, as her age means that giving birth is high risk, but Andrews refuses. Meanwhile, there are rumors of atrocities committed by the militia of Mongolian warlord Tunga Khan (Mike Mazurki). Miss Andrews is certain that the mission will be safe, as they are American citizens. After a nearby, even poorer British mission is sacked by Tunga Khan, Miss Andrews reluctantly accepts survivors Miss Binns (Flora Robson), Mrs. Russell (Anna Lee) and Miss Ling (Jane Chang), but only for a short time, as she is unwilling to harbor those of any other denomination for long. Immediately after the arrival of the survivors, a cholera outbreak erupts. Dr. Cartwright quickly takes command, treating all the Chinese of the area. Miss Andrews's initial hostility to her subsides when Emma gets sick and she implores Dr. Cartwright to save her life. After the emergency is over and Emma is well again, the relationship between Andrews and Cartwright starts to soften. but deteriorates when Cartwright shows up drunk in the dining room with a bottle of whiskey, and tries to make all the pious women drink as well. One night, Charles and Cartwright see a fire on the horizon and hear gunfire. The next morning, the Chinese soldiers of the nearby garrison evacuate in a hurry, as Tunga Khan and his men are believed to be approaching. Miss Andrews is still convinced the mission is untouchable, but Charles is now determined to be assertive. He and Kim, an English speaking male Chinese mission staff member, drive out to investigate the situation, while urging everyone else to be prepared to leave the mission, despite Miss Andrews's opposition. After a while, they hear the car's horn, but once the gate is opened, bandits on horseback charge in firing their guns and quickly take over the mission. Before being executed by the bandits, Kim tells the women Charles was murdered when he tried to rescue a woman being assaulted by Tunga Khan's men. Then Miss Ling, coming from a powerful Mandarin family, is taken away to act as Tunga Khan's young wife's servant, while the seven white women are herded into a shed. They watch as Tunga Khan has every Chinese in the mission executed, women and children included, to Emma's shock. Tunga Khan comes into the shed and tries to take Emma. Realizing that they are mostly American women, he decides to ask for a ransom. With Miss Andrews panicking and Florrie in labor, Dr. Cartwright asks for her desperately needed medical bag. Tunga Khan offers to exchange it for her sexual submission to him. The doctor agrees, and helps Florrie give birth to a baby boy. After Cartwright goes to fulfill her end of the bargain, an increasingly deranged Andrews vilifies her, calling her "whore of Babylon". The others, however, understand the sacrifice the doctor has made and why. In the evening, the Mongols gather in a circle and organize wrestling matches for entertainment, with Dr. Cartwright watching the spectacle at Tunga Khan's side, as his new concubine. When the lean warrior (Woody Strode) who had been ogling Cartwright all evening steps into the ring to face the winner of a bout, Tunga Khan insists on accepting the challenge himself and breaks the man's neck. Cartwright manages to convince Tunga Khan to let the other women go, including Miss Ling. Before Miss Argent leaves, she sees the doctor hide a bottle that she had earlier called poison. She urges Cartwright not to do what she is planning, but to no avail. With the others safely away, Cartwright, now in a geisha outfit, goes to Tunga Khan's room and secretly poisons two drinks. She subserviently offers a cup to Tunga Khan, as she utters, "So long, ya bastard." After Tunga Khan drinks, he immediately keels over dead. Then, after a moment's hesitation, Cartwright drinks from the second cup. ===== Urbania follows Charlie (Dan Futterman) through a sleepless night. After an unsuccessful bout of masturbation to the sound of his upstairs neighbors having sex, he prowls the streets looking for a man he saw several months earlier. The implication is that he's had a one night stand with the man, cheating on his boyfriend Chris (Matt Keeslar). This is reinforced by several phone calls Charlie places, leaving messages on Chris' answering machine. As he's walking, he has momentary flashes akin to hallucinations or waking dreams: a man's mouth; a bottle breaking; a man with a blood-stained shirt. After a series of encounters (with his upstairs neighbors, whom he tells about his masturbatory activities, and a potential trick), he meets the man he's looking for. His name is Dean (Samuel Ball) and it makes no sense either that he'd trick with Charlie or that Charlie would trick with him. Dean is unabashedly racist, sexist and homophobic. Nevertheless, Charlie, pretending to be straight, buys Dean drinks and smokes a joint with him. Dean takes Charlie to a gay cruising area looking for victims, but Charlie is able to warn away the intended target. Dean is now almost incapacitated by alcohol and drugs and Charlie gets him into Dean's car and drives him to a secluded marshy area. As had been implied by Charlie's flashbacks, Dean and two of his buddies, several months earlier, had attacked Charlie and raped and murdered Chris in an apparent hate crime. Charlie's purpose is finally revealed: he wants revenge. In a dreamlike conversation with Chris, Charlie relates what happened at the marshland. He pulled a knife on Dean and told him why he was there. Dean didn't remember him. Charlie forced Dean to drop his pants and was disgusted to see Dean had an erection. Charlie forced Dean to kneel and fellate the knife blade. Suddenly, Dean collapsed with an epileptic seizure. Charlie slit his throat. Chris challenges Charlie, not believing that he killed Dean. Charlie admits that he wanted to but couldn't. Instead, he drove off in Dean's car, abandoning him in the marsh. Charlie stands up from where he's been kneeling, at a makeshift memorial near where Chris was killed. He walks home and has one more hallucinatory flash. He sees himself on the street, cradling a dying Chris. He kisses Chris goodbye and passes by him. When he turns back, Chris is gone. Charlie makes it home and, finally, is able to sleep. Charlie presents aspects of his story in the form of urban legends. The film references a number of urban legends, both by having characters describe them as they're depicted and by presenting random people experiencing them. ===== The story is about Dr. De Soto, a mouse dentist who lives in a world of anthropomorphic animals. He and his wife, who serves as his assistant, work together to treat patients with as little pain as possible. Dr. De Soto uses different chairs, depending on the size of the animal, or simply has the patient sit on the floor, using a stepladder or with Mrs. De Soto guiding her husband with a system of pulleys for treating extra-large animals. They refuse to treat any animal who likes to eat mice. One day, a well-dressed fox with a toothache drops by and begs for treatment. Dr. De Soto feels pity for the fox and Mrs. De Soto suggests they risk it, so they admit the fox as a patient. They give the fox some anesthetic and proceed to treat the bad tooth. However, while under anesthesia, the fox unknowingly exclaims how he loves to eat mice (including with a dry, white wine). The De Sotos remove the bad tooth, and tell the fox to come back the next day to get a false tooth. On his way home, the fox notes that it is crass to try to eat the creature that had just relieved him of much pain, but still doesn't dismiss the idea. Later that night, Dr. and Mrs. De Soto, as she prepares the new tooth of gold, debate whether to readmit the fox. Dr. De Soto feels it was foolish to trust a fox, but Mrs. De Soto says she thinks the fox was reacting to the anesthetic in his comments. In the end Dr. De Soto vows, as his father taught him, to finish the job he started, but they formulate a plan to protect themselves. The next day, the fox returns; he is much happier, out of pain, and anxiously awaits the installation of his new tooth. Dr. De Soto puts in the new tooth, but by now the fox has decided to give in to temptation and eat them. Dr. De Soto then introduces a new formula the couple created recently, and claiming that one application will prevent toothaches forever asks the fox if he'd like to be the first to try it, who, hating pain, readily agrees. The dentist takes his time and paints each tooth with the formula, then has the patient clench his jaws shut for a full minute. The fox is surprised to find that his mouth has been glued shut, as this is what the secret formula really is, but Dr. De Soto states that he "should have mentioned" that the formula needs time to permeate the dentin and as a result, the fox will not be able to open his mouth for a day or two. Stunned, the deceived patient can only reply with 'frank oo berry mush' and in a daze, leave with as much dignity as possible. The book ends with the De Sotos triumphant at having "outfoxed the fox", and they take the rest of the day off. ===== The book deals with the early life of Tomie dePaola. He has just moved to a new house in Connecticut and the 1938 hurricane has just hit. Tomie expresses unhappiness for seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the theatres. ===== As House and his team work on the diagnosis of Vincent, a man with a massively swollen tongue and a high temperature, a disgruntled former patient named Jack Moriarty walks into House's office and shoots House twice with a handgun. Vincent develops two additional symptoms: blood leaking into his left eye, causing it to swell outward (and eventually be removed), and a burst testicle. The symptoms appear to have no possible connection to each other. Waking up from a coma two days later, House continues to treat Vincent from his hospital bed in the ICU with Moriarty, shot by hospital security and handcuffed to his bed, as his roommate. House wakes up Moriarty and asks why he wanted him to die. Moriarty replies that it was not his intention to kill House, and that he wanted to see House suffer. The reason Moriarty wanted to see House suffer was because his wife was a recent patient that House previously treated. While diagnosing her, House badgered Moriarty until he admitted that he had cheated on her. Despite this fact having no medical relevance to his wife's illness, House told her about the affair anyway. Moriarty's wife then committed suicide shortly after being released from the hospital. He tells House that he realizes that his affair led to his wife's suicide, however he feels that House should take part of the blame because there was "no reason" to tell her about it. Since the shooting, House feels decreased pain in his leg. He finds out from his records that during the surgery to treat the gunshot wounds, a treatment of ketamine to induce a coma had been given to relieve his leg pain, but he experiences neurological side effects. It becomes clear that House cannot separate fact from fiction, as hallucinations begin to get a stronger grasp on his sense of reality, from hitting Wilson to eating tacos outside the hospital. He begins to question his own ability to diagnose, while hostility increases between him and Moriarty. As Vincent’s body begins to deteriorate, House struggles through his own self-doubts and must try to make sense of his life and world. House is seen hallucinating sitting in the passenger seat of Moriarty's wife's car next to her as she commits suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning (by starting her car with the garage door closed). House comes back to his hospital room from his daydreams and with sincerity tells Moriarty "I'm sorry." After several hallucinations, House determines that nothing he has experienced since the shooting is real, and in order to snap out of his hallucination, decides to kill Vincent with the facility's surgical robot. House theorizes that doing this will push his mind past the point of reality and force it to believe the truth - that he is hallucinating. This is further proven when House's team tries to stop him from even using the robot, seemingly knowing he is going to kill Vincent; something that would not be possible unless everything he is experiencing is in his own mind. The surgical robot tears into Vincent and his vital signs disappear. At first, it seems House really killed him, but then Vincent drops a bullet he held in his hand. This is all the proof House needs that everything was just a hallucination, and he says "goodbye" before snapping back into reality. His theory proves to be true, and in the final minutes of the episode we see House being rushed into the ER moments after he was shot. Before the episode ends, House asks Cameron to tell Cuddy that he wants ketamine, which he supposedly received prior to the imagined events of the episode. ===== Miss Adela Strangeworth is described prominently as a harmless old lady in the beginning of the story. Through conversations with the people in her town, it is evident that Miss Strangeworth often believes that she owns the town, and has great interest in the townspeople. She also takes great pride in the orderliness of her house, as well as her family roses. However, Miss Strangeworth is not such a quiet figure in her town; she often writes anonymous letters to her neighbors, which are rarely based on fact and more on what gossip she has heard during her walks down the streets. When she is mailing some of them, one is dropped on the ground and one of her neighbors (whom she had once made a subject of her uncouth letters) notices, and, feeling kind, delivers it to the intended recipient (unaware the letter is meant to be anonymous). The next morning, Miss Strangeworth receives a similarly written letter, informing her that her roses, a source of her familial pride, have been destroyed. The story examines many themes, such as a person being two-faced, as well as how a single person can make a mark on a community. ===== The arrival of the shipwrecked captain, Cleveland, spoils young Mordaunt's relationship with the Troil girls, and soon a bitter rivalry grows between the two men. Minna falls in love with Cleveland, not knowing his true profession. Brenda however is in love with Mordaunt. The pirates capture the Troils, but after an encounter with the frigate HMS Halcyon, they are freed. Brenda and Mordaunt are reunited, and Minna and Clement parted. ===== The mime-styled, French supervillain Bomb Voyage attempts a bank heist in the fictional American city of Metroville, but Bob Parr, alias Mr. Incredible, guided by his friend, the ice-powered superhero Frozone (secretly Lucius Best), works to stop his plans. Meanwhile, the metamorphic heroine Elastigirl battles against Voyage's mime minions across the Metroville skyline stretch. Mr. Incredible captures Bomb Voyage in the bank when his fanboy, Buddy Pine, shows up. Mr. Incredible is dismissive of Buddy Pine, and Bomb Voyage sneakily plants a bomb on Buddy's cape, who flies away with his rocket boots to notify the police. Mr. Incredible fortunately notices the bomb on Buddy's cape, and grabs hold of Buddy to embark on a wild ride above the city. Mr. Incredible and the bomb both fall onto a rooftop, where the bomb detonates harmlessly as Bomb Voyage appears in a helicopter. Voyage attempts to kill Mr. Incredible with bombs, rockets and laser beams, but Mr. Incredible throws the bombs back at the helicopter, causing it to spin wildly out of control, heavily damaged. Bomb Voyage flees the scene, Mr. Incredible having defeated his madcap foe. Fifteen years later, superheroes across America have been long-since sued and outlawed for causing too much public destruction and are forced by the US government (chiefly the CIA) to disguise themselves as civilians and live normal lives in hiding. Mr. Incredible has married Elastigirl, who has become Helen Parr, and they have three children together: Violet (who possesses force-field and invisibility powers), Dash (a 190+ mph speedster), and Jack-Jack (who does not appear to have obtained any superhuman abilities). After narrowly escaping an apartment inferno on an illegal heroic excursion with Frozone, Mr. Incredible is approached by a mysterious woman named Mirage, who tells him about a secret organization based on a remote South Pacific island called Nomanisan. Meanwhile, Dash is late for school and has to race through the Metroville traffic to reach his school on time. The organization's latest invention, the Omnidroid Mark 08, is endangering the island and its personnel. After a rough beach landing on Nomanisan Island, Mr. Incredible encounters numerous hostile robots before he finds and destroys the Omnidroid during a volcanic eruption. The entire battle is witnessed by Mirage and her anonymous employer through the eyes a robotic bird. The shadowy employer remarks that Mr. Incredible's victory is surprising, and asks Mirage to issue him new assignments. After weeks of rigorous training and having received an improved suit from superhero tailor Edna Mode, Mr. Incredible returns to Nomanisan well-prepared for another mission. When he reaches the conference room, he fights through numerous armed security guards, deadly robots and laser systems in the robot arena, but once he reaches the empty meeting room, an improved Omnidroid (the Mark 09), appears suddenly from behind a huge sliding wall and grabs Mr. Incredible, quickly overpowering and trapping him. The Omnidroid's creator, Syndrome, appears, who is Mirage's secret employer and reveals himself to be an adult (and very hostile) Buddy Pine. He reveals that he wants revenge on Mr. Incredible by killing off him and the world's other superheroes. Mr. Incredible is remorseful for his treatment of Syndrome, and escapes his clutches by jumping off the great falls. He evades Syndrome's life-sign scanner by hiding behind the skeletal remains of his superhero friend Gazer Beam (whom Syndrome had previously dispatched in an undersea cave). Unfortunately, he is later captured and imprisoned in Syndrome's base when he breaks into the villain's secret computer room, learning of Syndrome's plans to unleash his perfected Omnidroid (the Mark 10) on Metroville. Syndrome then intends to take credit for stopping the robot and saving the city, tarnishing the reputations of Mr. Incredible and his allies in the process, before he becomes the world's only super using his weaponized inventions. Elastigirl (now Mrs. Incredible), flies to Nomanisan island to rescue her husband and safely stores a stowed-away Violet and Dash in a cave, sneaking into Syndrome's complex with the goal of finding Mr. Incredible. She works her way through the hidden base and into Syndrome's volcanic lair. The next morning, Violet and Dash accidentally activate a robotic cockatoo's alarm system and are forced to use their powers to escape from Syndrome's guards. After a 100-mile dash through the jungle and across the beaches and lakes of the island, and Violet's crossing of Syndrome's henchmen (thanks to the use of her invisibility), the two learn not to be ashamed of their powers and work together, combining their abilities to form the Incredi-ball. They battle henchmen and robots, eventually finding their parents, with Mirage having had a change of heart and freeing Mr. Incredible. As the Incredible family finally meets up outside the secret lava labs, Mirage helps them activate and launch one of Syndrome's rockets from the rocket silo, which they use to reach Metroville, where the Omnidroid is wreaking havoc on the populace. The Incredibles and Frozone work together to destroy the robot, stop Syndrome and save the world. Syndrome escapes from the battle in the city, but is later killed offscreen when he attempts to kidnap Jack-Jack Parr as revenge. The Incredibles meet with their family friend and CIA agent Rick Dicker, who acquits and relieves them of their lives as superheroes in hiding, and they are loved by the public again for their efforts. ===== Eldon Fochs is a 38-year-old accountant and lay provost. He is happily married with four children. Feshtig works as a therapist in an Institute of Psychoanalysis funded and controlled by the church. Fochs is persuaded to go to Feshtig by his wife, who has a growing suspicion that her husband harbours dark secrets. Fochs slowly reveals the contents of his dreams and his "disturbing thoughts" about children to Feshtig. He reveals two dreams; one when he strangles and dismembers a girl and another of a 12-year-old boy. In the dream, the boy comes into his office and Fochs brutally sodomises him. He frightens the boy with threats and forces him to admit to having been molested by an uncle, something that never happened. Fochs claims that in his dream he was guided by God. In the chapters where Fochs is in the first person, he describes how he assaulted and murdered a 14-year-old girl. He also describes his ecclesiastical superior confronting him with allegations from two mothers that he has molested their boys. He denies the allegations, and his superiors choose to believe him. Feshtig meets with one of the mothers and starts to counsel her son Nathan Mears, and he gradually uncovers the extent of the damage that Fochs has done to the young boy. As the abuse allegations reach the media, the pressure on the church mounts, but it does everything to protect itself and its reputation, going as far as to excommunicate the two mothers. The pressure on Fochs from his wife is more difficult to answer as she presses him on what he was doing the night the girl was murdered. Eventually he rams his car into a tree, having surreptitiously unclipped his wife’s seat belt. She is thrown through the window and killed. Feshtig reveals his conclusions to the police, but their DNA tests are inconclusive. Protected by the church, Fochs still contrives to spend time alone with young boys in order to molest them. He is eventually transferred to a teaching position in another city, free to carry on his abuse. As the novel ends, having assaulted his children’s babysitter, Fochs sinks to further level of depravity and starts a cycle of incest with his eldest daughter. ===== In a village, the parents of first cousins Sujatha and Raghu decide that the children will marry one another when they grow up. Raghu is seen to be arrogant and negatively shaded since young. He smokes and steals money from his father to gamble. Once when Raghu attacks Sujatha's classmate when he helps her, Sujatha breaks all bonds with Raghu. When Raghu's family moves to another village, Sujatha and Raghu do not even say goodbye to each other. Meanwhile, Raghu's father gifts Sujatha with silver anklets and requests her to never remove them, to which she obliges. Several years pass by. Raghu and Sujatha are very distanced. Sujatha grows up to be a beautiful teenage girl whereas Raghu becomes a rogue and a womanizer. Every time his mother speaks of Sujatha, he feels disgusted. He goes to the extent of sleeping with his servant. Meanwhile, Sujatha goes to college where she meets Venkat. Venkat is from an extremely poor family and does small jobs to support his single mother, and pay the money lender. He has a decent group of friends and they are classmates with Sujatha. Venkat has an instant crush on Sujatha, which Sujatha does not reciprocate. Venkat asks Sujatha to come to the temple festival, to which she refuses. But in the end, Sujatha comes, indicating that she is in love with Venkat. Venkat and Sujatha start dating and communicate with each other on the train by writing to each other on the blackboard at the side of the train. Once, when building up the courage to board the same compartment in the train as Venkat, Sujatha is spotted by the family astrologer. She goes home scared and as she had expected, the astrologer had told Sujatha's father. Her father tells her that she would be married to Raghu just as was decided years ago. Sujatha protests, but her father stays firm. This results in Sujatha dropping out of college and staying at home. Raghu comes for the engagement reluctantly (still thinking of their childhood encounter), but instantly falls for her the moment he sees her. He warns Sujatha that she would never go away and marry him in the end. They both are engaged. Sujatha has a younger sister Kalyani, who turns out to be the messenger between her and Venkat. She gives a message to Venkat to meet Sujatha at the temple. The whole family goes to the temple after the engagement and there Sujatha sees Venkat waiting for her. She is spotted talking to Venkat by Raghu and his gang and they mercilessly beat him up. Traumatized, Sujatha runs to her father, but Raghu indirectly warns her family that things would turn out wrong if Venkat is seen anywhere near Sujatha. He then mysteriously comes into Raghu's home and writes that he would be the one marrying Sujatha in the end, in blood, triggering Raghu. Fearing that Venkat would come and take Sujatha away, Raghu sends his men to Venkat's house. They trash the whole house and the things inside, sparing his mother. His mother tells Venkat's friends that he should come back with Sujatha and if he does not, she herself would kill him. Same thing happens in Sujatha's home on their wedding day he writes he will take Sujatha at 7:00. Raghu in a rush, asks the family to hurry and complete the wedding. Sujatha goes into the room to change but in reality, she is waiting for Venkat, after seeing his message on the wall. Raghu comes and breaks open the door and at the same time, Venkat comes through the roof and rescues Sujatha. Angered and defeated, Raghu goes after the couple and a chase ensues which results in Venkat getting wounded by Raghu. The couple and Venkat's friend who helped them, escape in the train with the help of the conductor. But Raghu enters the train with his men and the couple escape to the roof, where they are cornered. To save themselves, they jump off the train and roll down to a forest. To their shock, Raghu and his men come there as well. After gaining confidence from Sujatha, he fights with Raghu. Raghu is defeated in a face-to-face combat with Venkat, and Venkat marries Sujatha. ===== In the novel, Harley Hudson, the affable but inept Vice President from Advise and Consent, is now president and seeking a term of his own against a backdrop of Soviet- instigated war, as the Soviet Union backs rebel governments in Panama and in the fictitious African republic of Gorotoland. Hudson responds with U.S. troops in both countries, and the conflicts soon bog down. The election season soon turns on these foreign policy questions, with the media and others seeking a peace candidate — and finding it in the popular but weak-willed Governor Ted Jason of California. Having announced his candidacy late, Hudson announces an open contest for the Vice Presidential nomination, in which Secretary of State Orrin Knox, who supports Hudson's policies, opposes Jason. The media, who had supported Jason heavily when it looked like it would be a Knox-Jason race for the Presidential nomination, continues its effort for a Jason victory by any means they can. At the convention in San Francisco, extreme elements of the Left and Right combine to support Jason, and there are several violent incidents, including one in which Knox's daughter-in-law is brutally attacked. When it becomes clear that the convention is split down the middle in fights over the platform, Jason challenges Hudson for the Majority Party's nomination (the novels never use the proper names "Republican" or "Democrat" but the descriptions of Majority Party corresponds strongly to the Democrats of the 1960s). The media, meantime, spins merrily away, filtering what the country is allowed to see and hear from San Francisco. Ceil Jason, the Governor's wife, leaves him when her husband's lack of principle and willingness to tolerate the violence sinks in to her. Hudson wins narrowly, and Jason expects the Vice Presidential nomination since he commands the support of almost half the convention. Hudson seems amenable, and places Jason on the dais as he makes his acceptance speech. Hudson humiliates Jason by making it clear that he considers Jason a panderer, and states he will accept Knox, and only Knox, as his running mate. The convention duly nominates Knox, but almost half its delegates walk out, to the pleasure of the media commentators, who predict a third-party convention from among the disaffected delegates. ===== In 1857, after their attempts to smuggle contraband goods land them with a heavy fine from the British Customs, Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his crew of Manx sailors are forced to offer their ship for charter. The vessel is quickly hired by a party of Englishmen headed by an eccentric Vicar, the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson, who believes that the Garden of Eden is located in Tasmania and wants to mount an expedition there to find it. However, unbeknownst to the clergyman, one of his fellow travellers has an entirely different reason for journeying to the island. Dr Thomas Potter is a renowned surgeon who is developing a thesis on the races of man and hopes to find some interesting specimens there. Running parallel with this story, but starting some 30 or so years earlier, are the recollections of Peevay, one of Tasmania's natives, who describes the devastating impact the white settlers had on his people, and the Aboriginal people' struggle to adapt to the cultural changes which were forced on them. Many of the chapters alternate between the two different time periods, but when the Manx ship eventually docks in Tasmania, both strands of the story are brought together for the book's conclusion. ===== Spencer Griffith is a shy boy in seventh grade. He has a crush on a schoolmate named Michelle. His life changes one night when a mysterious meteorite crashes into a nearby junkyard. Sneaking out of his house to investigate the site, he discovers the meteorite to actually be a small rocket carrying a "Cyborsuit.", a prototype exoskeletal-suit with AI (short for Artificial intelligence) from another galaxy. He decides to try it on and melds with it, but requires some time to adjust to the experience, including the new speed and strength. He then tests out many of the suit's primary functions and abilities, and decides to call it "Cy". He proceeds to go around town doing whatever he wants, starting with getting back at a bully from school named Turbo, then saving Michelle and her friends from a damaged Rock-O-Plane and ordering food from a fast-food restaurant drive-thru. He also endures the hilarious antics of trashing part of his house after getting his head stuck inside of the refrigerator, discovering the unappealing way that the suit will allow for him to eat his ordered drive-thru food, and finding a way to pee when Cy won't let him out to do it. During this time, Earth is visited by a Broodwarrior, a member of an alien race of insectoids. They are currently waging a war against the suit's creator, Tenris De'Thar, and his fellow Trelkins, who had created it to develop a weapon to turn the tide of the war, but he was forced to launch it into space due to a Broodwarrior attack. The Broodwarrior's mission is to find and capture it so his race can analyze it. After his first encounter with the Broodwarrior, Spencer escapes, forces Cy to eject him out of the suit, and abandons it telling it he's afraid he might not "live to see his next birthday" if he "engages" the Broodwarrior. Back at home, after he looks over one of his comic books titled MidKnight Warrior and he thinks about what the title character, in his situation, would do, he goes back out to find Cy. He unexpectedly finds himself accompanied by Turbo, now becoming his friend, only to find out Cy has been captured by the Broodwarrior. They head to the junkyard, where Cy is about to be taken off-world by the Broodwarrior, and create a plan to distract the Broodwarrior long enough for Spencer to rescue Cy. Spencer gets Cy back and begins battling with the Broodwarrior. During the battle, the Broodwarrior gets the upper hand and defeats Cy and Spencer. After getting bashed multiple times by the Broodwarrior's mace and severely damaging the suit, Cy is forced to eject Spencer out of it before going completely offline. Spencer covers it with scrap metal to hide it from the Broodwarrior, takes a piece of it, and continues to fight the Broodwarrior, who was later trying to chase down Turbo. Spencer confronts the Broodwarrior before getting chased himself and is suddenly cornered inside of a junked ice cream truck. Just when the Broodwarrior is about to dispose of Spencer, Turbo finds a control panel and activates the car crusher the truck is sitting in, revealing the chase into it to be part of a trap. Spencer escapes while the Broodwarrior is compressed along with the truck into a solid metal cube, killing him. With the Broodwarrior now destroyed, the boys return to Cy but it appears that they were too late to save it. Just as Spencer begins to lose hope, Tenris De'Thar and a small group of Trelkin soldiers appear from a giant UFO orbiting Earth and quickly repair it, bringing it back to life. After Cy and Spencer say goodbye to one another, the head alien soldier gives Spencer a badge for his bravery and courage before their departure back to their home-world, and the long, eventful night finally comes to an end. The next day at school, a now confident Spencer, with encouragement from Turbo, starts up a conversation with Michelle. ===== After winning his party's nomination in Capable of Honor, U.S. President Harley Hudson dies in a suspicious plane crash. William Abbott, the Speaker of the House, is reluctantly elevated to the Presidency. The Majority Party immediately convenes its National Committee, torn between the supporters of California Governor Ted Jason and those of Secretary of State and former Illinois Senator Orrin Knox. Eventually Knox defeats Jason, but names Jason as his vice presidential nominee. At the conclusion of the novel, a gunman appears and opens fire on the two candidates and their wives. ===== The film presents five childhood friends in their twenties who have grown up together in the town Falkenberg. The movie chronicles what they call "their last summer" in the town, faced with the prospect that sooner or later they have to move up to Gothenburg. Their lives in Falkenberg currently circle around nothing and each other: Holger, who seems to be the central figure of the five, faces fears of moving away from his hometown and becoming clichéd; his brother John, grumpy and lazy; Jesper, the only member of the group who already attempted to move away from the town, but ends up coming back nevertheless; Jörgen, who is in the process of setting up a catering business, but without much prospect; and David, the sensitive loner and Holger's best friend, whose diary serves as a narration for the story. The film offers vignettes of the seemingly empty lives of the five: wandering in nature, dealing with the parental expectations, swimming in the sea and burglarizing homes (although more as a pastime activity opposed to a financial source). At the climax of the movie, David wraps up his diary and mails it off to Holger. He then packs up a shotgun, goes out to the forest and commits suicide. Holger is initially distraught, but eventually, as David predicted in his diary, "life goes on" and the remaining friends settle back into their former routine of killing time and facing their inevitable prospects. ===== Rock Me Baby is about a former exotic dancer, Beth, and a radio personality, Jimmy, who produce a child together, with most of the storylines of each episode revolving around the baby, Otis. Throughout the beginning of the series, Carl has a crush on Pamela and is rejected on every attempt to gain closure with her. Jimmy and Beth overcome a series obstables about being new parents and the phases of life. ===== The story begins with Mark Harrison, a 13-year-old survival enthusiast, hiking through the mountainous Magruder Missile Range. All of a sudden, he gets bitten by a snake and falls into a blue light. He wakes up in a strange world that he believes is an alien world with many similarities to Earth. He uses his survival skills to live off the land and while exploring the forest, he discovers a camp made up of short, human-like creatures with webbed feet and dark, olive-colored skin. Soon he finds them too warlike to bear interacting with. He also hears a creature called the howling thing. A tribe which Mark refers to as the Arrow People allow him to live with them. He meets a girl named Leeta, whom he befriends. Soon after, he is enslaved by the Tsook, a metal-weapon wielding race of hominids. Over the next three months, he learns their language and develops feelings for Megan, the chief's daughter. Mark attempts to flee the village, but as he is trying to escape, he learns of an imminent invasion of the village. Mark returns to warn the tribe about an impending attack, and as a gift, Mark is granted freedom and official entry into their tribe. Mark then discovers that, despite his misconceptions earlier, this world is a ruined Earth, sometime in the future. Meagan's brother gives Mark a shard of a Coca- Cola bottle and the Merkon (leader of Transal) reveals the events between Mark's time and this future, also revealing that he too was sent there by the beam of light. Sometime in the near future, a strange, highly contagious form of the Ebola virus wipes out most of the human race. Those remaining used nuclear armaments on each other, forcing civilization to start over. After severely wounding the Merkon in a sword fight, Mark asks Megan to marry him. However, the Merkon's son has sworn revenge and Mark flees the village to protect them. He leads the Merkon's army to the jungle, away from his new home. Once in the jungle, Mark systematically kills the army but forgets about a scouting party that attacks him. Mark hides behind a boulder for protection and suddenly the boulder is struck by lightning and sends off a charge which brings Mark into his normal time. ===== After Chen Zhen's execution in Shanghai, the Japanese feared that his death would unite all Chinese kung fu schools against them. Fearing this, the Japanese gave orders to the head of the Hong Ku School, Miyamoto (Lo Lieh) to suppress all the Chinese schools including the Ching Wu School. Miyamoto sends the Japanese along with their interpreter to the Ching Wu School ordering the leader & students to leave the School. When they refuse, the Japanese beat up the students and destroy the school. Meanwhile, one Chinese man learns about the destruction of the Ching Wu School when he goes to Shanghai to visit Chen Zhen's grave. This Chinese man is the only one who has the guts to fight the Japanese, this Chinese is known as Chen Shan (Bruce Li) who is the brother of Chen Zhen and he vows to avenge his brother's death and end the terror of the Japanese once and for all. ===== F.U.B. was once a catering officer with the Sector Marines. F.U.B. (which stands "Fat Ugly Boy") was once on a barren desert front during one of the relatively obscure skirmishes of the last 40 years. Not wanting to let "the boys" down and unable to find any meat, F.U.B., cooked his own legs and served them up in a rich broth. Despite it being the best dish he had ever created, F.U.B. was given an unconditional discharge and asked never to show his face again. F.U.B. replaces his legs with, hydraulic-powered replacements. He undertakes a radical appearance; wearing furry dice, smoking Havana cigars and painting a target on his portly belly. The six playable characters have notable differences and derangements, but what they have in common is that they are all psychotic criminals who have been setup by F.U.B. and are now serving sentence on an inhospitable prison planet, the planet Raulf. F.U.B. has even taken on a new identity, working his way up the ladder by murder, and is now the warden of Raulf. The player (or two of the game's six characters, in two player mode) must escape Raulf, chase F.U.B. and engage on a bloody odyssey across the strange worlds of the galaxy to exact revenge on F.U.B. The supervillain, however, sees it as a challenge, and to this end he creates a machine that can toy with the very fabric of the universe, manipulate matter, and even open doorways to other dimensions. With this machine, F.U.B. plans to hold the universe for ransom and sets up a prison break on Raulf to set things in motion. If he can defeat a group of the most feared individuals in the galaxy who are armed to the teeth and wanting revenge, he figures he can defeat anyone. ===== In Seattle, nine-year-old Luke Winfield (Elijah Wood) is the only witness to his father's murder at the hands of a rain-slicker-wearing killer with a cargo hook. However, the boy fantasizes the murderer as Captain Hook, in an escape from the traumatic reality. Detective T. Bass (Tom Skerritt), who is in charge of the investigation enlists child psychologist, Dr. Hollis (JoBeth Williams) who's failed marriage was caused by her inability to have children. While getting closer to Luke she has an affair with Bass. She also discovers some troubling family secrets ensuring she is next to be slain. ===== Barney Snow (Elijah Wood) wakes up in a hospital with no memory of why he is there. All he has is his name and some vague recollections of a car crash. He assumes that he is in the hospital for his amnesia and settles in to try to recover. He quickly realizes that all of the other residents of the youth clinic are all suffering from terminal illnesses. Another patient, Mazzo (Joseph Perrino), asks Barney to play host for his visiting twin sister Cassie (Rachael Leigh Cook). Barney immediately falls for Cassie and strives to get better, if only to be able to see her in a setting outside the hospital. He is determined to learn about his past so that he can make her a part of his future. In his explorations, both inside his shattered memories and through the physical rooms of the hospital, Barney starts to realize that there was no car crash. Doctor Harriman (Janeane Garofalo) induced amnesia in Barney to make him forget everything in his past. Barney demands to know why, and Harriman tells him he has cancer. The experimental procedure that Barney is undergoing is attempting to test the power of the mind in fighting cancer. Barney had volunteered for the treatment, hoping for a miracle cure. The theory was that if Barney didn’t know he had cancer, the body might stop creating the cancer cells. The explanation Harriman gives comes from an old myth that, based on weight ratios to wing power and wind resistance, the bumblebees should be aerodynamically incapable of flight — yet the bumblebee doesn’t know that, so it flies anyway. Torn between his hope for a cure and his desire to continue his budding relationship with Cassie, Barney is forced to choose whether to go through the amnesia procedure again or remain with the memories and knowledge he has thus far acquired. ===== A nine-year-old boy and an experienced fisherman dream to catch a Barracuda known as "Old Moe". The problem is that once the fish is caught, there is immediate regret and the life of the fish has meaning. ===== Jinx Roberts (Dick Foran), an arrogant but talented stunt pilot, and his assistants Blackie (Bud Abbott) and Heathcliff (Lou Costello), are fired from a carnival air show after a disagreement with the owner. Jinx decides to join the Army Air Corps, and he, Blackie and Heathcliff go to a nightclub to party one last time. Jinx falls for the club's singer, Linda Joyce (Carol Bruce). Coincidentally, she leaves her job to become a USO hostess at the same Academy where Jinx and her brother, Jimmy (Charles Lang), are enrolled. Jinx's instructor at the Academy turns out to be Craig Morrison (William Gargan), his co-pilot on a commercial aircraft years earlier, and the two still hold animosity for each other. Meanwhile, Blackie and Heathcliff persuade a colonel to allow them to join the Air Corps as ground crewman. They fall in love with twin USO hostesses (Martha Raye in a dual role). Jinx hatches a plan to help Jimmy solo by abandoning him in mid-air. Jimmy is nearly killed landing the plane. Linda deplores Jinx for his ill-conceived actions and he, along with Blackie and Heathcliff, who have had several mishaps of their own, are discharged from the air corps. In an aerial display during graduation, Craig parachutes out of a plane but gets his chute caught on the tail end of the aircraft. Jinx, watching from the ground, confiscates an aircraft and flies to his rescue. For his heroic actions, Jinx is reinstated and wins back Linda's affections. ===== Prominent criminal attorney Amos Strickland (Nicholas Joy) checks into the Lost Caverns Resort Hotel. His murdered body is later discovered by the bellboy, Freddie Phillips (Lou Costello), who is implicated in the crime. Casey Edwards (Bud Abbott), the house detective, tries to clear Freddie, but Inspector Wellman (James Flavin) and Sgt. Stone (Mikel Conrad) keep him in custody at his hotel room 'on the state'. Strickland's secretary Gregory Millford and seven of Strickland's former clients happen to be at the resort, and they are all suspects. These former clients are Swami Talpur (Boris Karloff), Angela Gordon (Lenore Aubert), Mrs. Hargreave (Victoria Horne), T. Hanley Brooks (Roland Winters), Lawrence Crandall (Harry Hayden), Mrs. Grimsby (Claire DuBrey) and Mike Relia (Vincent Renno). The bodies of Relia and the secretary Gregory Millford are found in Freddie's closet, and he and Casey try to move them and hide them. The former clients gather for a meeting and decide that they must conceal their pasts and that Freddie must take the blame for the three murders. They trick Freddie into signing a confession, and then want him dead. Angela tries to seduce him, but the police stop her when they fear she's poisoned the champagne, then the Swami attempts to hypnotize him into committing suicide but his stupidity saves him. Freddie and the two police officers, in an attempt to draw out the real killer, inform everyone that Freddie is in possession of a blood-stained handkerchief found at the murder scene. Soon afterwards, several attempts to kill Freddie are made, including gunshots at the window of his booby-trapped room, and locking him in a steam cabinet. Eventually Freddie hears a voice that calls him to bring the handkerchief to the Lost Cavern. There he meets up with a masked figure who offers to save him from the hole he has just fallen into in exchange for the handkerchief. Freddie makes the mistake of telling the mysterious figure that he left it in his room. He is left in the hole, but is eventually rescued by the two police officers. Back at the hotel, everyone has gathered together and Sgt. Stone returns with some muddy shoes that belong to Melton (Alan Mowbray), the hotel manager, which proves that he was the one in the caverns with Freddie. His motive for the murder was that he, Relia and Millford, Strickland's secretary, were blackmailing the owner, Mr. Crandell. What the blackmail was for is never explained. When Strickland found out he came to investigate, so Melton killed him. Millford then sent down the former clients to use as decoys for the police, but Melton killed Relia and Millford to cover it all up. He attempts to escape through a window, but is caught by a booby trap previously set by Freddie. ===== Kim Rae-won plays Choi Seung-hee, a young director who just made a successful international film debut. Following his success in Australia, he meets the girl of his dreams, Lee Hye-su (Jung Ryeo-won), an aspiring musician. After spending a lovestruck romp on Australia, they planned to get married. Hye-su, however, discovers her mother does not approve of Choi. Driving to eat out one day, Seung-hee suddenly proposes to Hye-su, and while putting the ring on her finger, Seung-hee careens wildly on the road to get out the way of a truck. The accident causes Lee's death. Choi then spends the next three years in seclusion, drinking and holing himself up in his apartment. Han Jeong-hoon (Park Si-hoo), who runs a film company, urges Director Kim to finish his grieving and to start working on film again. Choi pulls all his energy to push Hye-su out of his thoughts. On the day he decided to go out and to continue working, he sees a young woman at the sidewalk who looked exactly like his beloved Hye-su. Struck by the utter similarity, he starts to follow the girl to her hometown, which turned out to be a far-flung province. The girl, named Kim Bok-shil (also played by Jung Ryeo-won), realizing Choi had nowhere else to stay for the night, offers her home as an inn. Being poor, she considers all opportunities a chance to get good money. After spending the night at the fake inn, the two also spends the morning together searching for fresh mountain water and encountering a wild boar in the process. Choi does not reveal his identity to Kim, and Kim mistakes him for a bum waiting to pass a long overdue exam. While walking on the countryside, Choi is inspired by the beauty of his surroundings and gets ready to prepare for his next film. He then returns to Seoul and later comes back to Kim's village to shoot. They see each other again, and Bok-shil realizes Seung-hee is a renowned director. Bok-shil then positions herself as a rice- server for the crew and comes to the set everyday. By a stroke of luck, Han Jeong-hoon, also on the set, absent-mindedly offers Bok-shil a job at the film company. Jeong-hoon is also struck by the similarity of Bok-shil and Hye-su. Bok-shil starts work in Seoul as an assistant for Director Choi. In the hopes of saving enough money for her mother's surgery, Bok-shil braves the demands of her work despite her clumsy and awkward ways. Seung-hee finds himself being attracted to Bok-shil because of her face, initially, and then later on because of her unique charm and humor. Hye-su's family, by chance, sees Bok- shil and realizes she is the long lost sister of Hye-su. Hye-su's mother, determined not to lose another daughter, runs an investigation to find out Bok-shil's real identity. Proving that Bok-shil is really Lee Hye-rim, her lost younger daughter, she pleads Bok-shil/Hye-rim to leave her rural life and adopted mother to embrace her true lineage. Through Yoon Mi-hyeon (Kang Jeong- hwa), the film company's music director who turned to be her cousin, Bok-shil realizes she is the sister of Hye-su, Director Choi's former girlfriend. She is now conflicted on how to tell the truth to Seung-hee, who is now also falling for her. After the initial shock and confusion, Seung-hee was able to overcome his fears and admits he is in love with Hye-rim as Kim Bok-shil. Bok- shil's real mother, pained yet again due to her younger daughter's choice, becomes determined to put an end to the relationships. Her hate for the director has come full-circle, and Choi now has the chance to do what he wasn't able to do for Hye-su. ===== After avenging the death of his brother, Chen Shen (Bruce Li) returns home from Shanghai. He tells his mother (who went blind from crying over her son's death) that he will no longer fight. Japanese occupiers who are aware of Chen's history terrorize his family by, among other things, vandalizing his mother's store and beating up his brother. Later, they frame Chen for a murder. After the Japanese boss arrives in town and causes a ruckus, Chen breaks out of jail for a final confrontation. ===== The novel is set in a small town in Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century. Edith, a young "Slum Sister" (social worker) in the service of the Salvation Army is on her death bed dying of "consumption" (tuberculosis). She requests that before she dies, she would like to again see David Holm, one of her charges. It becomes apparent that the two have a special relationship. A year earlier, he was the first patron of the newly opened social welfare house that Edith had founded. He also had infected her at the time with tuberculosis after she stayed up all night mending his torn and infected coat. Over the next year Edith wanted to help him, but he was a violent alcoholic and always cruelly rejected her. This only increased her resolve and Edith developed a deep love for David. Edith then learned David is married with children, but they had to leave home because David was so violent. Edith persuades David's wife to return home, but they are treated worse than ever by David. This makes Edith feel guilty, as David threatens to deliberately infect his children with TB. On her death bed, Edith now wants to try one last time to put things in order. Meanwhile, David is sitting in the park with drinking buddies and telling them a horrible story about the coachman of death - as it happens, the last person to die each year is recruited by Death incarnate to travel for the next year picking up the souls of the dead in the Phantom Carriage. David heard this story from his friend George, who died last year on New Year's Eve. After more drinking, David gets into a fight with his companions, is hit in the chest and suffers a hemorrhage (a complication of TB) and falls lifeless to the ground. At the same moment the clock strikes midnight. None other than David's old friend George then appears in the Phantom Carriage. David now has to replace George and serve as the driver for a year of death. When David refuses, Georges binds him and throws him into the death cart. Now a ghostly apparition, George takes David to see the people that David loved most and whom he has most harmed. First they visit the dying Edith. When David learns that Edith has loved him, he softens and falls to his knees in front of Edith. Edith can now die in peace, and Georges commands her soul from her body. David and Georges then go to a prison in which David's younger brother is incarcerated. The brother had been led astray by David, starting with drinking alcohol and then committing a murder. Now, David's brother is dying of TB. The brother regrets that he his failed to fulfill a promise he once made to a sick child to see the ocean. David vows that he will fulfill his brother's promise, and so David's brother dies in peace. Finally, George and David go to David's wife. She has decided to kill herself and the children, life with David is no longer tolerable and she sees no way out. David feels love for his children for the first time in his life. David pleads with George to allow his soul to return to his body so that he may stop his wife from killing herself and the children. This Georges does and David redeems himself to his wife in a tear filled reunion. Georges will serve another year as driver to the dead. David prays the New Year's prayer that he has learned from George, God, let my soul come to maturity before being harvested. ===== The novel is set in the land of Gwynedd, one of the fictional Eleven Kingdoms. Gwynedd itself is a medieval kingdom similar to the British Isles of the 9th century, with a powerful Holy Church (based on the Roman Catholic Church), and a feudal government ruled by a hereditary monarchy. The population of Gwynedd includes both humans and Deryni, a race of people with inherent psychic and magical abilities. The novel takes place in the early ninth century, beginning ten years after the conclusion of Saint Camber. The plot of the novel centers on the desperate efforts of the Deryni to protect their futures from a rising tide of human anger and discrimination. As the health of aging King Cinhil Haldane begins to fail, a small group of powerful Deryni struggle to save their race from the deadly plots of Cinhil's ambitious nobles. ===== A stray kitten called Myron wanders into Betty Boop's house, gets sick on candy, and is cured with catnip by Betty and Pudgy the Pup. ===== Peony is set in the 1850s in the city of Kaifeng, in the province of Henan, which was historically a center for Chinese Jews. The novel follows Peony, a Chinese bondmaid of the prominent Jewish family of Ezra ben Israel's, and shows through her eyes how the Jewish community was regarded in Kaifeng at a time when most of the Jews had come to think of themselves as Chinese. The novel contains a hidden love and shows the importance of duty, along with the challenges of life. This novel follows the guidelines of Buck's work: it is set in China, and it involves religion and an interracial couple (David and Kueilan). ===== The novel is set in the land of Gwynedd, one of the fictional Eleven Kingdoms. Gwynedd itself is a medieval kingdom similar to the British Isles of the 12th century, with a powerful Holy Church (based on the Roman Catholic Church), and a feudal government ruled by a hereditary monarchy. The population of Gwynedd includes both humans and Deryni, a race of people with inherent physic and magical abilities who have been brutally persecuted and suppressed for over two centuries. The novel begins over two years after the conclusion of High Deryni, shortly after the seventeenth birthday of King Kelson Haldane. As a recurring political rivalry threatens to erupt into open rebellion, Kelson must face a dangerous combination of new and old foes who rise up against him. ===== An Old English Sheepdog accidentally drinks a liquid growth formula (a form of experimental fertilizer) and expands to gigantic proportions. Two criminals steal Digby and sell him to a circus. Digby later escapes and roams across the countryside of the United Kingdom. The boy who owns Digby, as well as the scientist who worked on the growth formula, both realize that Digby is still growing and will cause enormous damage unless something is done immediately. The scientist finds out he has created a chemical that might reverse the growth formula. The British military, however, aims to solve the problem of the oversized sheepdog in their own way: by use of bombs and artillery. ===== Paul Toombes (Vincent Price) is a successful horror actor whose trademark role as Dr. Death, a skull-faced sadist. During a party in Hollywood showing off his fifth Dr. Death film, he announces his engagement to Ellen Mason (Julie Crosthwait), who gives him an engraved watch as an engagement gift. Later that evening, however, adult film producer Oliver Quayle (Robert Quarry) reveals Ellen had worked for him previously. Distraught at Toombes' angry reaction, Ellen returns to her room, where a masked man in dark garb, similar to Dr. Death's attire, approaches her with a knife. An apologetic Toombes comes in shortly after, only for her severed head to fall from her shoulders. Though he is acquitted of the crime, Toombes' career is destroyed as he spends several years in a mental hospital, where even he is not sure whether he killed Ellen or not. After his release, Toombes is called to London by his friend, screenwriter Herbert Flay (Peter Cushing), who has partnered with Quayle to produce a Dr. Death television series for the BBC. While on the cruise ship en route to England, Toombes encounters a persistent young actress (Linda Hayden), who steals his watch and follows him through London and eventually to Flay's house. In the spider-infested basement, Toombes discovers Faye Carstairs (Adrienne Corri), the female lead in one of the Dr. Death movies and now Flay's reluctant wife, driven mad after being disfigured in a car accident. Outside Flay's house, the young actress discovers the masked man walking the grounds; believing it to be Toombes, she approaches him, only to be killed with a pitchfork. When her body is discovered, Scotland Yard suspects Toombes, as the killing resembles a scene from one of his films. Toombes publicly berates his female co-star on set; she is soon found hanged by her hair, another scene from a Dr. Death film. Scotland Yard questions him but finds no conclusive evidence. Toombes is harassed by the parents of the actress from the boat, who threatens to deliver the watch to the police unless he pays them a ransom. However, the masked man lures them into the house and impales them both with a broadsword. On the set, the director is crushed by a descending bed canopy in a trap intended for Toombes. Later, Toombes is chased through the BBC studio by the masked man while on his way to an interview. Julia Wilson (Natasha Pyne), Quayle's public relations chief, discovers a contract in Quayle's files, but is killed by the masked man; Toombes discovers her body and suffers a nervous breakdown. Taking Julia's body onto the set, he locks himself inside, turns the camera on, and sets it ablaze. Believing Toombes to have died in the fire, Flay signs a contract to take his place as Dr. Death. Later he watches the reel of film from Toombes' death in his home – only to see Toombes seemingly walk out of the screen, burned but apparently very much alive. When Toombes demands why Flay wishes to destroy him, Flay rages that he had written the Dr. Death role for himself, but was passed over in favour of Toombes; he murdered Ellen to frame Toombes in the hopes of destroying his career but was still not given the role. He then reveals that the contract that Julia had discovered stipulated that if Toombes died, Flay would take over as Dr. Death. The two struggle into the basement, where Flay is stabbed and killed by Faye and fed to her spiders. Toombes applies makeup to his burn-scarred face, now looking similar to Flay, and sits down to dinner with Faye. ===== Mary's story begins in her home, Cornwall England where her village is starving to death. In desperation, she steals, landing her a place on the long voyage to Sydney along with other convicts. Pregnant by a jailer, Mary is befriended by a quick-witted smuggler named Will. She is also aided by another on board, a stiff-necked, moralistic British officer named Lt Ralph Clarke, whose wife abandons him just as the ships set sail. His help was portrayed as a mission in humanity and social reform. During a rough night at sea Mary hits her head on a bar and is knocked unconscious only to be saved by Will, with whom she becomes increasingly passionate. She is also cared for by Lt Clarke. Unaware that she is “with child”, Clarke asks permission from the Captain to let Mary stay with him. He believes that by educating her, he can reform her. Clarke has promised “the girl will remain an innocent under his charge” so, after finding out that she is pregnant, Clarke takes his anger out on one of the other female convicts (who insulted him) with a lash. Angered by his heartless act, Mary returns to the cells with the other prisoners. After giving birth to her daughter on the ship, Mary and the other convicts arrive at Botany Bay. Mary named her daughter , “after the ship”. Seeing the benefits of being a family, Mary soon marries Will and they have a son Emmanuel. Her determination is always to avoid the hunger of her upbringing and to save her children from a similar fate. Mary “abandons” her husband to live with Clarke who had been infatuated with her ever since she stayed with him on the ship. This is merely a distraction so her husband and their friends can steal food and supplies. After getting everything they need to escape in the Governor’s cutter, Mary slips away from Clarke in the middle of the night. Infuriated that Mary deceived him and again deserted him, Clarke shoots at and tries to sink their boat. They escape with only minor damage to the boat. Mary, her husband Will, their two children, and five other men set sail for Timor, closely followed by Clarke who obsessively pursues them. Through sheer grit and enormous luck, most of them make it 4,000 miles to the Dutch colony of Timor where for a time they enjoy the luxury of freedom under false identities. However, fate conspires against them as Clarke stops there on his way back to England. The group flee Clarke and his guards, splitting up to avoid being caught. Will, realising the danger that Mary and the children are in, intentionally leads the guards away from his frightened family. Pursued by the jealous Clarke, Will is eventually shot and killed. An intense meeting between Mary and Clarke in the tropical jungle finds Clarke holding a pistol to Mary’s head. Mary again tries to manipulate the lovesick Clarke in order to save her children. Realising that she does not love him and only used him to survive, Clarke fires his pistol into the air, alerting nearby guards of their whereabouts causing Mary to be arrested. On the journey home to England, where Mary and her two surviving escapees are imprisoned once again, she loses both of her children to shipboard diseases. An emotional Mary lets go of her son and daughter, dropping them into the open sea, as she says farewell to the rest of her family. On arrival in England, a charismatic Mary gains the support of the English public as she retells her story of the search for justice, in which she lost her entire family. The courts decide to free Mary and her companions in appreciation of their honesty and the belief that they had learned their initial lesson. As for Clarke, he is left in England carrying the burden of being responsible for the death of Will, Charlotte, and Emmanuel. As Mary stands once again in Cornwall where her story began, she reflects on the short time of her family, and the lack of freedom symbolised through the death of her beloved. She silently agrees to carry on for the sake of their deceased souls, despite not knowing what the future holds anymore. =====